Wolf's Keeper
by NyteGale
Summary: The second in the Billie and the big bad Wolf trilogy. This will occupy some of the time between the end of Assault and the beginning of Command. As always please review; and thank you for continuing to read. If you have yet to read Billie and the big bad Wolf; don't read this yet. DUH.
1. Chapter 1

**I hope you will all enjoy the sequel as much as the first. I have decided to make this a trilogy, since Billie seemed to mesh well into the world of Star Fox. If anyone is interested in creating cover art for the third; please do not hesitate to PM me, I would very much like to feature Billie and Wolf for the final cover. And thank you very much for continuing to read and review. ENJOY THE ADVENTURE!**

* * *

CHAPTER 1

"When will you learn you can't get the drop on me?" Taylor said holding up a new sleek jet black metal arm. He pointed the hand of it at her, and the fingers folded backward as the palm opened up into a gun barrel.

"I get the drop on you dear… Now tell me, where is that hair pile who took my arm and my love from me?"

"He's not here…" she lied

"I saw his Wolfen, right next to yours!" Taylor spat seeming enraged that she would lie. "Now Billie…" he said taking on a patronizing tone. "You know the last thing I want to do is hurt you-"

"I think we both know I'd win in a fight between us." Billie cut in not wanting to sit back and hear him yap. She clenched her fists as the black stripes began to run up her wrists; using her powers used to bring up bad thoughts, but now the warmth of shadow lace only made her think of Wolf.

"That's it." The lynx said in astonishment, then he lowered his arm. "That's what you saved me with: WHAT IS IT?" he asked with a hideous toothy grin, then he fired; knowing she would have to use it.

Billie held up her right hand in front of her and her left behind her; the blast of his gun arm faded into the cloud of her right hand, and exited from the cloud of her left. Taylor took off his glasses and grinned at her taking her fighting stance.

"Show it to me again." He said coolly, like a psychopath.

"What is with you?!" she said getting a creepy vibe. "And what happened to your stupid little Cage?"

"It's all gone now! Those Damn Aparoids destroyed everything. And Star Wolf destroyed my reputation… This is why I'm here."

"What you want revenge on Wolf?"

"No, I want you to leave them; and come along with me… we have much to discuss."

"Maybe some other time." Came Wolf's sarcastic voice from behind the lynx. As Taylor turned to look he only saw the lupines face for a moment, and then he saw his fist as it collided with his face. He took the punch well, and after making a quick recovery sent his new metal fist hurdling towards Wolf's face.

Wolf ducked down on all fours, and used his claws to shred at Taylor's ankles; but the lynx saw it coming and jumped over Wolf rolling behind him. Wolf reared around with himself now between Taylor and Billie; and the two held out guns at the ready.

"Seems a stalemate…" Taylor said pleased with himself.

"I don't think so!" Billie's voice shot fourth and much to Taylor's shock and awe two large black clawed hands shot fourth like liquid wind from either side of Wolf and pushed Taylor into a nearby building; breaking down the wall.

"I think we've over stayed our welcome." Wolf said holstering his gun and turning around to his Shadow Legion. She nodded and the two ran like hell for their ships.

Taylor getting up dazed from his little ride got up and began to fire on them both into the street.

"BILLIE!" he screamed enraged. As a shot neared the back of her head she turned around in a full stop; holding out her middle and index fingers from her right fist she cut the blast in half with a swoosh of shadow lace. Sending the plasma into two different directions.

Billie had become quite the artist with it now; she now realized that every other Shadow Legion in history had it wrong, the secret to having exceptional control over the shade was not to cut off your emotions completely; but to be able to tie them to something you liked, or something you loved while using the well of feeling to bring it to the peak of its potential. This was the dawn of a whole new warrior; one who owed her allegiance solely to Star Wolf.

As quickly as she had done that she turned back around and they booked it into the ship lot. Taylor ran after them and kept firing shots until they swerved into the exit tunnel. As he watched them get away, again… he punched a nearby ship with his bionic arm denting the hull.

"Son of a bitch!" he spat up to the air.

* * *

"You want to tell me what the** fuck** that was?!" Wolf yelled to his comrade as they sped through the dark cold of the ice patches.

"Well I don't know, I guess he found me somehow!" she protested not knowing anything more than Wolf at this point.

"Great! Now our footing at the smuggler's rock is compromised…" Wolf said in an angry growl of an accent.

"We don't know that for sure. It may have just been a coincidence."

"Well, what did that freak want?"

"He just, wanted me to go with him… he said his prison was gone…"

"So then he was in fact; looking for you! Which means he is going to keep tracking you and find you again." Wolf said.

"We don't know that for sure! It still may have been a coincidence… I mean if his prison really is gone he may have returned to his old life of crime!" she protested.

"So… he wanted a romantic getaway then?" Wolf said somewhere between being sarcastic and annoyed.

"Oh Wolf! He never really had romantic interest in me; it's my powers that fascinated him… and besides did you see his arm? That was some serious tech."

"So?"

"So, that guy can barley refuel a ship… how did he get bio tech of that quality? And why did he want me to go with him? He almost looked desperate…" she trailed off as they emerged into open space.

"Desperate? I thought he was always like that." Wolf said remembering the swap and bust incident.

"No… he used to be, well collected. Always; it was like he had ice in his blood. But now there's something off about him… I can't explain it; he almost seemed desperate to see the shadow lace…"

"He's cracking under the pressure? Humph, after we escaped he lost his little prison in the jungle… he must be losing it." Wolf concluded.

"Taylor may be cracking, and he may be a sadist but he's no expert tracker. And he's nooooo good with tech. I think someone else is pulling the strings here."

"Who? Any old enemies of yours ringing a bell?"

"No. I'm 97… any old enemies of mine are either him; or dead. I have no idea who is behind him."

Wolf thought a moment in the silence; running his mind a mile a minute… but he could not place it either.

"Hey it's Panther." Billie said flipping out her red lens. Wolf saw on his e-patch as well.

"We just got the shipment; everything is good on this end. How about you guys?" Panther chimed.

"Nothing we couldn't handle." Wolf said calmly.

"Okay, we'll be waiting for your return. Panther out."

Billie cut all of her chats off, then she pumped up some music and leaned back trying to decompress. Wolf just thought in the silence… it was now essential that they get footing on Fichina; before the crazy cat man and his supposed friends found their only current base.

* * *

About an hour later they pulled into Sargasso, and jumped out of their cockpits.

"Billie, I need all of these ships up and running, yesterday." Wolf said walking through the deck to the boxes of tech that had been hauled in.

"Yeah, yeah I got it." She shot back a little testy; the entire incident was still fresh in her brain.

"Did something happen?" Leon asked watching her hastily unpacking metal crates.

"Taylor happened," she said quickly with busy hands.

"How's the arm?" Leon laughed to Wolf remembering the day he shot it off.

"We handled it." He grunted dismissively as he began unpacking a different crate. "But we are going to need these ships up and running, and a location on Fichina picked out-"

"I know: yesterday!" Billie shot back organizing a mess of wires.

"It's only a matter of time until he finds this place isn't it?" Leon nodded to Panther; who in turn nodded back.

Although Billie was the most technologically able, they all had a pretty fair understanding of their separate vehicles; and working on through the hours they got quite a bit done. Billie showed them each the tech she added to their ships, and how to do upkeep on it. But she and Wolf seemed to be purposefully keeping their distance; Panther wondered if they were angry at each other, or just stressed.

"Okay hold still." She said finally walking up to Wolf.

"What-" he stopped short as she held up a scanner to his good eye. It flashed green and made a beeping noise. Then just as quickly as she'd come she trotted back to her baby without a word.

"What was that?" he asked walking up behind her and looking up at her in the cockpit.

"Well, after the swap and bust and that little incident in the black market today… I figure we may not always have the luxury of having every ship, or always being in the same place at the same time. But now, your iris, and mine; both have the ability to start my ship. If need be…" she said typing away on a projected light keyboard that found its source in her ships dash.

"You mean, I can fly your ship?" Wolf asked crossing his arms and smirking up to her.

"Yeah, so long as you are good to her… but don't be too good; I don't want her thinking there's better out there!" she joked down to him through a big grin.

Wolf gruffed out one of his growling sort of laughs, and he watched her long fingers working in white flashes through the turned down music. Then a thought occurred to him.

"Hey Billie?" he shot up to her.

"Meh?" she grunted only half paying attention.

"Do you remember when that Krystal vixen from Fox's little crew told us what you were finally?"

"Yes… why?" she asked stopping her typing and looking down at him suspiciously.

"Well, how is it she knew about the old legend of your people, but no one else did?"

Billie looked down at him with narrow eyes. "I don't know… was she from the Lylat system? Because in other systems I've gone to; a lot of people seem aware of at least part of the legend… But the Lylat seems kind of closed off culturally."

Wolf thought for a minute, and then found the right words. "What system is Taylor from?"

"I'm not sure…" she said dismissively returning to her typing.

Wolf saw that she did not like the subject of the lynx in any shape or form… he wondered if that was one reason she was hesitant to do the swap and bust. But he realized that her focus was more important at the moment and decided not to pry any farther… But he still could not place what was happening. He wanted to believe it was all an amazing coincidence: but his instincts would not let him.

When Leon, Panther and Wolfs vessels were in practically mint condition; they decided to call it a day and worry about Fichina in the morning. Leon left first, and Panther watched Wolf turn to a very tired Billie who was still hard at work, but for once he decided not to eavesdrop and strolled off to his bedroom. They had a lot to do tomorrow that was for damn sure.

"Hey Billie, it looks good; let's call it a night." He said using his gloved arm to wipe his brow. Billie was still fiddling around with her ships weapon systems, new ideas were running through her head; and the Taylor thing had shaken her a bit. She had to be ready.

"You go ahead; I'm going to get a head start on the dark matter generators for Fichina." She said not even turning to look at him.

"Billie, you are exhausted… have you even eaten today?" he said realizing that he hadn't.

"I can go quite a while without eating."

"Maybe, but lack of sleep and food can make your hands shaky, I don't want you screwing something up."

"I said I'm fine Wolf!" she turned snapping at him. That set him off.

"Hey! What is with you girly? You have been snippy ever since the-"

"Don't say it! This has nothing to do with that…" she trailed off clearly lying.

Wolf bent his ears back and stared her down. "What's the matter?" he asked in a high voice, but not quite yelling. Billie sighed.

"It's just weird okay? Taylor coming after me like that, that weird tech… I just have this feeling like… like something bad, really bad is going to happen in the near future…"

Wolf stared to her silently. She put her tools down and started wiping her hands on a rag, and then she sat down on her baby's wing.

"Today at the bar… I thought of James… the last time I saw him…" she started sadly. "After the argument, when I told him to leave, the last thing he said to me was to follow my instincts; no matter where I wound up."

"Sounds like James…" Wolf said propping his leg up on her ships wing, himself having followed the very same advice in the past on several occasions.

"That's why I joined team Star Wolf; because I had this gut feeling that it was the place to be… even though I did not know who you were, it worked out well. And now I have a gut feeling like that again… and it's saying something bad is just around the bend. And it shook me a bit okay? I'm trying to let go of the past… but I feel like this is one of those times where I should take his advice to heart."

"Hmm, then take it to heart." Wolf assured her looking up at what she had accomplished for the team today. "But don't wear yourself too thin."

"As long as I keep my hands busy, my thoughts will be silent." She said sternly.

"True, but I can think of another way to keep those hands busy…"

"Ugh, I'm not in the mood…" she grumbled resting her head on her hand.

"I am." He said like that was all that mattered.

"Well can Mr. O'Donnell always get what he wants the minute he wants it?" she asked in a tone drenched in sarcasm. Wolf moved like he was fighting, he quickly reached down, grabbed her wrists and pinned her to the hull of her baby. She looked up in surprise at his smirking face and felt the breeze from his wagging tail.

"I guess so…" she said softly towards him.


	2. Chapter 2

**I apologize for not being as prompt with this one as i was with the previous installment; i am dealing with a bit of writers block. I know the general skeleton of this one, however i'm having a bit of trouble tying it together... the next chapter may be a little late for this reason; but fear not i shall emerge from it with a great story for you. Thank you for continuing to read.**

* * *

CHAPTER 2

Wolf awoke the next morning to his normal alarm; he was lying back in his bed wearing nothing at all, then he realized why his vision was blurry and reached around for his e-patch. It was nowhere to be found and neither was Billie, although she had fallen asleep on top of him last night, at least that's what he remembered through the fog of the shadow lace in his head. He got up with a stretch and threw some black pants and a black tee on, he almost left the room but stopped himself at the door, he turned around and dug a black eye patch out of a drawer, where Billie had thrown in a lot of her crap when she'd moved in with him so to speak. Taking a puff from his e-cig he headed out, earlier than anyone as usual.

All except for one person; he found Billie in the cafeteria, surrounded by large sketching papers, notes with mathematics scribbled on them and her tools everywhere. There were a couple of empty cups of coffee and plates with crumbs on them as well. Then he saw what she was doing: his e-patch was flipped open in her hands and she was fiddling around with it.

"You know, just because we are sleeping together does not mean you get to take liberties with my things." He said grabbing one of her plates and fetching himself something to eat. He hadn't eaten in nearly 43 hours now and hunger was beginning to claw at his stomach.

"I thought I would be done before you woke up." She said not looking up at him.

"Humph. What are you doing with it anyways?" he asked sitting down with a large plate of something that looked edible. One down side to a self serve cafeteria, nothing was particularly fresh: but it would suffice.

"Inferred vision and I'm adding an auto pilot feature. Actually I'm almost done…" she said using some pliers to delicately place wires here and there.

"What do I need that for?"

"Oh it has a great deal of practical uses. You can see burning ship fuel from far away, or pockets of heat underground; which I think may be useful on Fichina if it is as cold as Leon was bitching about…"

Wolf nodded as if to say 'more or less'.

"And its best feature, you will be able to detect heat signatures even if the target is using a cloaking device of some kind."

Wolf thought for a minute about that… it was actually something he really liked that she was doing; he hated his useless eye, now she was giving it an advantage over even his good eye.

"Nice work." He said as she snapped it back shut then began to screw it back together. Wolf looked around at all of the roughly sketched blueprints scattered all around her as he took another bite of his food.

"Here you go, sorry about that." She handed his patch back to him with a smile.

He didn't take it; he just looked at the bags under her eyes.

"I thought I told you to get some sleep." He mumbled a little annoyed.

She smacked her lips then set it down in front of him. "I did, for about four or five hours. Then I woke up, you were asleep, so I thought I would surprise you with the e–patch upgrade for Fichina."

"And I like it." He said going back to his food. "But I need everyone to be sharp today."

"Trust me, I have run on a lot less sleep before, I'll be fine. Besides I'm your elder yah whipper snapper!" she joked at him. "Don't be tellin' me what to do."

He couldn't argue; because she technically was 97… but he couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow at her. She sighed at his reaction wishing she could read his sense of humor better… she had thought he was developing one but maybe not.

"Okay fine, I'll take a nap while everyone else is waking up." She shrugged tossing her head back.

"Thank you Billie." Was all he said very monotone making him hard to read, then his mouth was full again.

About an hour later when everyone was getting up; Wolf had been getting himself ready. Sporting his only coat for the cold, a trench coat he seldom wore he was waiting on the wing of his Wolfen testing out his newly upgraded eye piece. He looked around at his base through his one eye at the red and yellow waves of humanoid shapes walking around. And one in particular grew larger as it came towards him; he shut the inferred feature off to be greeted by a pair of large yellow eyes Panther began to speak with him.

"Leon is busy putting on layers." He said in an amused tone. "How long have you been out here?"

"About an hour… all of the ships are fully fueled and ready to go. We are just missing some pilots."

"Yes, I saw Billie on the way down. Panther is glad his suit is insulated well." He said making his way towards his ship.

"Did she look rested?" Wolf asked but before Panther could answer he heard her answer.

"Yes, I'm rested; and ready for action." He turned to look at her in a fluffy red coat. Leon was next to her in an insulated leather suit with a black scarf covering his face.

"Let's get this over with." He said a bit muffled by the thick scarf.

"I don't get it Leon." Billie said as everyone boarded their cockpits. "Space has got to be colder than Fichina."

"Yes well the Rainbow Delta is heated… When you are walking around a frozen planet it's just you and your skin… and very little sun."

"Oh the gift of being warm blooded." Panther chimed over the chat as they flew on through space.

"What about you Wolf?" Billie asked. "That coat of yours looks pretty thin…"

"To hell with the cold… I prefer it to the heat." He said not in a talkative mood.

"Yuck." Leon said.

"Why?" Billie questioned; everyone ignoring Leon.

"Heat gets trapped under my fur… in the cold I don't notice it; but in the heat I sweat and the moisture is sticky and uncomfortable." He said tucking his necklace into his shirt.

"Heat huh…" Billie said in a cheeky voice. "You weren't worried about heat last ni-"

"We need to focus on the task at hand." Wolf snapped a little annoyed.

"Riiiight…" Panther said ignoring how quickly he changed the subject.

Wolf spent the rest of the flight in an annoyed silence. He could not believe after everything he had gone through with Billie on his team she still knew exactly how to push his buttons.

"There's Fichina city." Billie pointed down to the small sight of it below after they had broken into the atmosphere.

"I can't believe people actually live here…" Leon said.

"Well they do, there is actually a good flight academy here… I imagine a lot of people from the Cornerian flight academy will be here until the city is rebuilt…" she trailed off in thought.

"So let's be discreet." Wolf said what she was thinking.

"Yeah, it looks like they are adding onto the city, to make room." She said observing the structures through her radar.

"Is it wise to think about putting a base near it then? With an increased population…" Panther threw the question into the silence.

"Well yes actually." Billie said. "With everyone still reeling from the Corneria incident they will all be scrambling around in a panic trying to settle in and rebuild quickly, they will never notice more construction happening nearby."

"There." Wolf cut in as the city fell back into the distance.

Following in their old diamond formation the four ships sliced down through the cold air; powder snow shot up around them as their ships screeched into their sleep. Once the engines had knocked out the cockpits made their opening sighs and the pilots emerged onto the snowy hillside. Except for Leon who seemed to prefer staying in his cockpit; lucky for him Wolf paid little notice as he was busy taking in the view of the city skyline in the distance. Billie joined him by his side as the tails of his coat danced in the cold wind that howled by like a third lycan being present with them. She could see his mother's necklace making an indent through his shirt, she wished she knew more… 'Curiosity killed the cat… or wolf or whatever.' She thought remembering Wolf's anger issues. For a moment she wondered whether or not _he_ was even aware of them… looking up at his face, he seemed so impossible to read. He always either had that same enraged look in his eye that would make most people flee, or like at this moment she only saw the e-patch which left pretty much everything to the imagination. However he was still her boss, and they had business to attend to: so she shook it off for the time being.

"This is close enough." He said turning around.

Panther who had been trying to coax Leon out had given up and walked over to hear the boss's word. Wolf began to point, and look around at this places potential as he spoke.

"Right behind this hill we can put in the flight deck, facing away from the city so no one will be any the wiser to our coming and going. We can put a garage facing outward towards the city so we can keep supplied directly from Fichina city if we have to. And since it will just be the four of us here, it won't have to be nearly the size of Sargasso… we can make enough space for just us to get things done."

"It's a good location, but this sounds expensive…" Panther said realistically.

"We are still the Lylat systems number one underground mercenary service aren't we?" Wolf asked rhetorically. "So as we work on it; we will be doing as many jobs as possible."

"Well, guess for the first time I'm going to have bounty on _my_ head." Billie said not facing them; she was really admiring the city skyline in the shining snowflakes. A trick of the light made the city look as if it were made of crystal off in the distance.

"Yes and Panther was glad to have a lower bounty before… aren't we going to be attracting a lot of attention?"

"Not for a long time… not until they rebuild Corneria at least." Wolf said to his feline comrade. "And we are mercenaries, it's an occupational hazard."

"Where do we even begin?" Billie asked not breaking her city stare still. Wolf walked up until he was directly behind her looking down at the back of her head. Her light airy scent whiffed up into his nostrils, the two of them standing there; the large Wolf and the smaller red hooded Billie it was almost storybook.

"You know where we have to begin." He said down at her.

"I know… but do I have to go with this time?" she mumbled in the cold.

"No actually." He said down to her. She looked a little surprised at that. "Just go back to Sargasso, and get the generators up and running… about three of them." He said remembering the blue prints he had seen; her handwriting was hard to read, but he still knew his way around basic set up like that.

"Me Leon and Panther will return to smugglers rock. I've tagged this place on my e-patch; I suggest you all do the same." He raised his voice at the end and turned back around to his open vessel. She heard them take off behind her; and listened to them race up into the atmosphere. But she just stood there in the cold. In thought… a million thoughts of things to come.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Wolf sped up through the sky leaving Billie down on the icy surface, his Wolfen glowing a hot orange as he began to breach the atmosphere. He wanted Billie to come; but he also needed her tech ability working as quickly as possible. As the sky around him grew dark and finally became a starry black he looked over at Fichina's only moon. Although no member of the lycan race was sure why… gazing up at a moon could act like hypnosis for them; sending them into a trance like state. It affected some more than others and for Wolf it was never that much of a problem always mucking about in outer space. But when he was a child, he would gaze up at the moon no matter what phase the cold sphere presented itself in. Gaze up at it, lost in it from the window of the orphanage; this was where he first developed insomnia. Being awake when the moon was, brought out something in him in his younger days and at this moment he felt it again. It was so eerily familiar; so primal, it made him want to howl and free the beast within. Then he remembered another place he had felt this way finally breaking his violet eye away from the stone orb shrinking into the distance: he reached into his pocket. His hand came back up holding Billie's tattered red bra; he had kept it in his pocket although he was unsure why.

Her light scent lingering on it began to caress at his muzzle, bringing memories back into his brain. He ran his clawed thumb over the fabric, it felt so much like her velvet fur and just like that; he found himself trapped in the same hypnotic stare… staring into space not really focusing on anything in particular, but relying on his sense of touch. Remembering her horrible singing, it was more like howling and now it felt contagious. And although he had not appreciated it before he wanted to howl out to nothing now: just for that heart pumping feeling. Truth be told, making love to Billie was just addictive as looking into the moon, or wanting feel that gut wrenching adrenaline rush that came with chasing down the prey and clawing it into submission. Try as he may; he could not escape that fact, actually he couldn't even remember a lot of what they had done… in any of the times they had done it. He remembered little things, grasping at her flesh, biting at her neck, the feeling of those nails cutting the skin down his back, his panting like a lower animal filling the sound barrier… but other than those little things it all looked like a warm cloud of the color black. If that color had a person incarnate: it was Billie. At least to him, that was why he wanted her so, at every possible moment every time they were alone he had to get another dose of the drug. He had to try and remember just a little bit more of her; of his adrenaline rushing around clouding his head with primeval thoughts. She was a drug; he was an addict. The tattered red fabric he held in his hands; was the moon, the hunt, the rush that made him feel alive. He licked his canines in a big toothy grin; as he slowly became lost in his thoughts.

"So what exactly is the plan here…" Leon said giving him a funny look over chat. A little annoyed Wolf quickly pocketed the bra.

"What do you mean? I told everyone back on Fichina." He said gruffly.

"He was in his little box of warm if you recall sir." Panther purred out into the air.

"No, I know the plan for Smugglers rock… I mean with Billie." Leon said in a voice of annoyance.

"What about Billie?" Wolf said in a slow, but hostile tone.

"Well…" Leon started making an effort to choose his words carefully. "Don't misjudge these statements… she is a good edition to the team. But I'm wondering if she is gonna be good for us in the long run?"

Wolf gave him a stare that said 'tread carefully' and Leon knew he meant it. But that was exactly what bugged him.

"She's getting under your skin… and this Taylor guy… I'm just wondering if maybe she is going to draw too much attention to us." He said the last part fast trying to dismiss the opening of his sentence as quickly as possible.

"Getting under my skin?" Wolf said in a tone that sounded more animal than human.

Panther remained silent; not wanting to piss of Leon the knife murderer… and really not wanting to piss off his lupine boss.

"Yes, methinks you are getting a soft spot…" he took out a knife and poked the end to his finger as he said the word soft. "I think being around Billie is taking away your edge."

"Taking away my edge?" Wolf growled as they made their way to the crystal field of ice around their destination.

* * *

Meanwhile Billie hadn't even left Fichina yet. With her hands in the pockets of her red coat she wandered aimlessly down the windy streets. She didn't want to return to Sargasso yet and be stuck in that clunky metal cage. She was enjoying the breeze in her fur, although she wished it would blow away unwanted lingering thoughts and feelings. Ever since they had run into Taylor, it was like some horrid specter poking his bony finger in the back of her mind; reminding her that something bad was going to happen, but for his own sick pleasure would not tell her what. All she could do was try to swallow it down like she had always done with her feelings. She let out a long tired sigh and watched her breath mingle with the cold air… then to get out of the direct wind chill she went inside the nearest building; a little café with only two other people in it. She walked up and sat at the bar, trying to get her brain back into its normal function so she could get to work on the tech her team needed. But no… all she felt in her brain was tired mush… mush that was no longer capable of thinking… it was a tired sort of feeling, she was tired.

"Coffee?" said a cute little ferret, she couldn't have been older than 17.

"Please." Was the only word Billie's brain could sputter out. The ferret nodded and went back into the kitchen.

Billie's hands felt around in her pockets and found her wallet. She pulled it out and slid her old bounty hunting registration card out of it… She looked at how little she had changed since the 10 years ago that she had it renewed. Even her hair was the same length… she guessed it just stopped hereditarily. She heaved out another sigh… another tired sigh, the kind of tired that came with the fatigue of a long life. She had lived a long life… a couple of lifetimes compared to some other species, and all of a sudden she felt as though there were no time.

She had lived so long; always found a way to get by. Had been told she was meant for greater things… and what did she have to show for it now? Bad memories… lost loved ones… and the inability to let go. She had thought that wisdom came with age; she chuckled to herself thinking 'maybe I'm still not old enough'. She slid the card she would never use again back into her wallet, and as she replaced the wallet in her pocket she heaved out another sigh. She was just so ready for the danger to show itself, so she could either deal with it or die trying. Either way this tedious not knowing was beginning to return the feeling of helplessness she had felt so many times before. When she ran away, when her home was destroyed, when her friends died; but she would no longer cry. After Wolf had set her straight she realized crying and dwelling on the past just makes your eyes puffy. All she could do was let out another sigh, and let her face lay on the bar.

"Tough day?" She heard a soft warm voice to her side. Billie picked up her head and saw a lovely light rabbit looking at her from a slice of carrot cake.

"No, just a long one…" she giggled as a cup of coffee was placed in front of her. "Thanks." She shot to the waitress who nodded a smile to her.

"Well I hope it gets better. Things always look up eventually." She said through an optimistic smile.

Billie giggled… she had lived long enough to know that was not always the case.

"I envy you yah know…" Billie said sipping her coffee black trying to wake her senses up. "Such an unreal look on the times…"

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"No; I'm calling you an optimist… same thing basically." Billie chuckled.

"Well, you can call me Lucy, Lucy Hare." She said perking her smile back up. "I teach astrophysics right here on Fichina."

"Billie Shade. And I have always wanted to know more about astrophysics; could come in handy flying."

"You fly but you've never taken an astrophysics class?" Lucy said perking her ears up in surprise.

"Yeah… I kind of, learned on the job…" Billie said into her cup.

"Oh I've always wanted to be a pilot." She said excitedly picking up her plate and moving to the seat next to Billie's.

"What is it like? Up there in the sky, rocketing through the air?" The rabbit asked through bright eyes.

Billie thought back to when her and Devin put her baby together in that old scrap yard nearly 70 years ago; how she had felt during her first test drive… whizzing over the desert sands below, shooting up big dunes and racing up towards the sun. The first time in her life she could be seen in the light of day, riding through unafraid; unchained by anything that once held her down… it was the first time in her life she had something that was hers. Something she could pour her heart into and make her own, and for an even longer time it was one of her very few possessions. A big natural smile cracked Billie's muzzle open as the memory whizzed by her head.

"Being in your own ship… flying something that is completely yours that no one can take… no one can take that feeling away…" she trailed off trying to find the right words to describe her first flight. "It's ecstasy… its freedom in its rawest form."

Lucy leaned in with her hands propping up her chin, hung on the lupine's every word. The glow Billie was radiating was almost contagious. The two sat in that café for a good twenty minutes, Billie sharing how she had learned on the job: without giving too much of herself away. And Lucy filled in a couple of blanks as to why things happened, the way they did when Billie was learning the ropes. The two eventually paid their bills and Billie took Lucy to see her custom made ship.

"It's beautiful." The hare said walking up and taking in its shape. "It has the elegant look of an antique… but it's so new." She said taking in every detail carefully.

"Yeah, you hit the nail on the head." Billie laughed to her.

"I don't want to impose… but could I take a ride maybe?"

"Oh… uhm, I would like to but…" Billie tried to find something to say…

"No, it's okay, I understand. I've just always dreamt of being a pilot." She said looking at the ground shyly.

"So… if you hate teaching so much, why do you do it?"

"Oh, no I don't hate it. It can just get a little boring… being a pilot must be so exiting. But, it's too dangerous."

"Says who?" Billie said in a snarky tone.

"My father… it's complicated." Lucy looked down at her watch "Oh my, it was so nice meeting you! But I have to go."

"Okay, nice meeting you Lucy."

"If you are ever on Fichina again look me up!" she shouted back waving as she ran off.

'She was nice.' Billie thought; she looked up at the moon starting to brighten up in the soft glow of twighlight. Now keep in mind, Billie was only half lycan; she was not as compelled as most by the shifting moons, even if they did hold a mystical power over her deep down. It still however made her a little fuzzy in the head, like something ancient trying to unhinge itself from her selective consonance. She was however crafty, and snarky like her mother the fox. But even so… the moon did make her mind go fuzzy and wonder about her full lupine lover. He really did have some primal tendencies, like the way he growled at her and shred her favorite bra. Even the way he seemed compelled to fight all the time… from what she had observed he just seemed to thrive on conflict. She then thought if anything good could come from that sort of behavior… and the sickly feeling she had earlier returned to the back of her mind and began its incessant prodding. She sighed up to the white glow that radiated from her favorite of spheres and got into her ship to return to Sargasso.

* * *

Wolf, Leon and Panther had been on the rock during this time and they were all being quiet; not wanting to irritate one another any farther. When they had first landed on the block of ice and metal, Wolf had let Leon have it, he did not strike him; but he yelled him a long strongly worded speech he would not soon be forgetting. He may have struck Leon, but somewhere in the back of his mind Wolf was just a tiny bit afraid of Leon's unpredictable sadistic nature. He often felt the only reason he kept Leon around was because when it came to assassination he knew how to be discreet like no other. But he had made it abundantly clear he was not going soft… even though half the time he felt like he was trying to convince himself. That in itself was something he was having trouble shaking off.

Panther on the other hand was the neutral party in all of this, and was trying to keep the peace by standing between the two as they walked along. Leon kept his scarf over his face in the cold and tried to ignore the cold. The three walked through the artificial light Wolf looking like he was steaming as the exhaled heavy visible breaths in his silent anger. He was not about to risk his reputation on Billie Shade; he was still first and foremost the leader of Star Wolf.

"They seem to know you here." Panther chided in the lazy almost sleepy yellow gaze of a cat. He watched several people go out of their way to avoid the lupine they had seen bust down the bar just the other day.

"Good, that's what we want. We are going to be seeing this place a lot in coming months." Wolf not waiting for any kind of reply barged into the building that looked worn with age.

"Well hello Mr. O'Donnell." A familiar black iguana greeted in a raspy voice. "I hope we can forget that nasty incident from a few weeks ago…" he said referring to the incident with Billie. Wolf paused for a moment; that had all seemed like an eternity away now. He wondered if that was how she felt all the time. Then angry at himself for thinking of her while doing business he shook his head and looked at the lizard straight in the eye.

"Water under the bridge, so long as you stay on my good side. Now I understand you know how to get things… and people who work discreetly with no questions asked." Wolf said in his gruff all business tone.

"I hope you have the coin…" The lizard hissed coldly.

Wolf responded by slapping a large stack of bills onto the crusty glass counter top.

"Wonderful." He said taking it up and strumming it under his fingers… "You understand I may need more down the line…"

Wolf nodded knowing they were going to need yet another job.

"Well then, what service can I do you for?"

* * *

**As it turns out, i was able to draw a little bit on the stale feeling of the dreaded writers block; this story is becoming more solid. I hope you all love the chapters to come. And please keep reviewing. It keeps me running whether it's an entire crowd; or just one die hard fan, i appreciate it.**


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Billie had been alone in the Sargasso base for hours, she wasn't really alone; she was surrounded by criminals but her mind was zoning out to the song 'Killer Queen.' It had been on repeat, she always felt as though if people had theme songs 'she's a killer queeeeeen' had to be hers. As the melody drifted invisible through the air however, everything around her seemed to fall away into a field of black nothingness; it was just her and the clump of wires she was separating and soldering back into their proper places. Billie would often have racing thoughts that could only be silenced by the sound of music. 'Killer Queen' worked best overall in general; in fact this is another reason she had loved her and Devin's little oasis of sorts in the desert there was always a song to focus on. The problem had not been so bad since she had told her Star Wolf family the truth of her past… however nearly a century of nursing wounds that ran to the core did not diminish easily.

When Billie had first returned to her post she had been drawing out blue prints scribbling out mathematics and random sketches to the point where her pen had run onto the makeshift desk of her work station; the blueprints covered the paper and all other surfaces around her in a carpeting of chaotic attempts to silence racing thoughts of the past. James had once walked in on Billie back on her long gone Cornerian base, only to see the walls covered in inane scribbles of Shadow Legion text she had read throughout her years there in the library. And although he had tried to pry her away from her crazy doodling he had eventually given up when she became responsive to his voice. This had concerned James at first, but he had eventually come to the conclusion that every genius had their own unusual thought process. But being James he cared for his friend, and still thought to ask what was wrong with her; she had simply asked him if he had ever heard the song 'Killer Queen'. He said no and she introduced him to it. That had actually been a good day in Billie's book. But today, her thoughts were racing on that which had not yet come to pass. There was something waiting just around the bend, something sinister and not knowing what it was seemed like it may actually be worse than whatever was really waiting out there.

In fact she was so focused on the mindless task before her, and the song restarting for about the 20th time she had not even heard the three Wolfens pull into the port to the far side of the room from her. Nor did she hear the arguing ensuing from the emerging pilots.

"I don't need yah both acting like my fuckin' parents!" Wolf's voice grumbled with the deep properties of thunder, and his accent really showed in his rage.

"I'm not saying that she isn't an excellent addition; there is no question she has certainly pulled her weight since joining. I'm simply noticing that your mind is becoming a bit clouded!" Leon hissed his reptilian voice in defense.

"Oh fuck you!" Wolf said and stomped away before he did something he would regret.

"Maybe we shouldn't have said that like she isn't here…" Panther said twitching his ears and tail up at the music.

Leon shook his head in annoyance and went over to Billie's station where she still sat working in the veil of music oblivious to all that had happened just behind her.

"We need to talk." Leon said to the lupine that did nothing but still stared blankly forward soldering away. "Don't ignore me!" he yelled in a shrill tone and turned off her portable speaker with a click.

Billie's head popped up from her work and she took her black out goggles off and looked at the angry chameleon standing over her and the kindly gold saucers of the black cat next to him.

"When did you guys get back?" she said in a small voice, still feeling a little zoned out.

"You didn't hear us?" Panther chuckled and took a seat across from her. Billie could only shake her head slowly as the lyrics to the song still pounded in her head like it was still playing.

"Well like I said we need to talk." Leon said quickly getting back on subject. Billie put her goggles and soldering iron down and looked up making herself pay attention.

"Yes, sweetheart have you noticed anything strange about Wolf in the past few days?" Panther said in a silk voice. And Billie couldn't register if he was trying to be kind or trying to flirt.

"Why what's been going on?" Billie said, finally her thoughts shutting up and letting her be herself yet again.

* * *

Wolf stomped down a vacant hallway; one of many in the tangled labyrinth of this base, that was something he was hoping to correct when the new Fichina base was made; he had sent rough blueprints to the sneaky old lizard in charge of the workforce behind this project. For all of his anger issues he still had every aspect one could expect from a good business man; he was charismatic and could be polite if he needed to. And he never let a debt go unpaid, for as long as he could remember he had a talent for finding ways of getting money in a pinch. The problem in this business was that you usually wound up spending more than half of what you would make on simple cost of doing business expenses. Another thing he hoped to correct with some proper footing for Star Wolf in the underground world. And yet that was still another thing that made him angry… he was tired of that damned McCloud always getting the 'decent' jobs. He would always have to play second fiddle to Star Fox's little playgroup. That he felt to be the sole reason he had to scrounge around in the underworld like some common thief.

Wolf finally made his way to the room he really needed to be in right now; the athletic room. No gravity during space flight had the tendency to diminish bone and muscle tissue; and in his line of work you had to be in prime shape, being able to overpower your opponent was often the sole difference between life and death. But right now, he needed to let loose some rage… rage not at Leon or Billie, but simply hating the fact Leon was correct. Billie was a damn distraction; he didn't even know why, he had been with plenty of women before, and never gave them a second thought once the deed was done. He whipped off his coat and threw it to the floor with a plop and let his tight fists go to work on a 50 pound punching bag.

As he viscously worked it over, his thoughts began to flood him, feeling almost physically heavy; like they were pulling him down into the black. Most of the time Wolf felt a simple numbness; it came with the territory, people die and sometimes it was at the end of a blaster… on the end of his blaster. Oh well, it was no skin off of his nose; so long as he got paid. The only thing that really made him feel alive, like his heart was actually beating and not just another useless organ was when he had a good fight. An adrenaline rushing fight where he could free the primitive beast within; the familiar knock on the door in the back of his head when the moon clasped his gaze and refused to let go. But being with Billie he had come to notice gave him that same head rush; never another girl had that affect on him just Billie... As the thought ran through his mind he opened his fists and began to claw at the punching bag; and as the heard every little sweet tear of fabric another thought popped up along with it.

With no 'real'… or real fun work in a long time that swap and bust had given him that head rush, toppling over those guards had been almost too easy; saving McCloud to fight him another day; fucking McCloud always put up a good fight. And with no worthy opponents around, he had no means of getting his head rush. Then Billie had the audacity to tell him to let go of his rage towards McCloud; who was she to say that?! Wolf let out a bestial roar and tackled the bag with all his might, the rope holding it up snapped and he tackled it down to the floor.

"Why…" he hissed in a beastly way as he began to pant like a lower animal, sweat moistening his fur. His thoughts had once again taken him on a ride right back to Billie; right back to that head rush he got from dominating her. His clawed hands became blurs as he began to shred the punching bag, trying desperately to get that adrenaline rush; trying to find another way to get it, so he could get the Billie distraction out of his head. But his efforts were futile; he wanted to know more, because of that shadow, which clouded them every time he was only aloud small windows of memory. And in the past few days that had led him to become addicted to it, without his even being aware… like a little demon sneaking its way into possession of his body and now it was too late to do a damn thing about it. He had to see more; every time was an effort to remember more; to dwell on the head rush, to feel the warm caress of the licking tendrils of shadow lace; it was just as addicting as a damn good fight!

Sparks rose from under him as he clawed at the bare metal of the floor through the top of the shredded punching bag. And still; this was not as good as sleeping with Billie, or fighting McCloud. He let a loud animalistic yell out into the silence and punched the floor.

* * *

"I see, so is it affecting his work" Billie said rubbing her temples with her forefingers.

"Well; he did get rather distracted by the moon on the way out, nearly went off course." Panther thought… "The moon had always been something the minds of the romantic dwell on…" he said assessing the situation with those yellow orbs.

"Well Leon, you've known him the longest… has he ever acted like this before?" Billie said turning to the reptile.

"Well actually…" Leon answered searching through his memory. "Something like this happened once before… it was after James McCloud died."

Billie's ears perked right up at that.

"This was before either of you joined, when we were offered the job of taking down James's son Wolf jumped right at it. I won't go into details, because needless to say we failed. After the Lylat wars when the Venom army broke up: I thought Wolf was going to die. All he cared about was the next fight; he was a man obsessed constantly trying to find dangerous jobs, taking assassination contracts more than any other. All he wanted to do was fight, like he was looking for the best fight he could possibly find. In fact he came quite close to death several times."

Billie and Panther just looked on with wide eyes.

"Actually… it was really fun!" Leon exclaimed. "Perhaps I'm over reacting."

"Well okay then so why is this bad?" Billie asked the grinning chameleon.

"Because, if Wolf is distracted by a fight; it will only spur him to get the job done by killing the target… but if he is distracted by **you**, he may find your safety to be a distraction on the job. This may cause him to take a bullet to the head while worrying about you in the heat of battle instead of staying focused on the job." Panther said in his typical almost bored voice.

"I can handle myself! I was the best damned bounty hunter in Lylat before I joined you guys."

"Yes, I know you can handle yourself; and I'm positive Wolf knows too or he would not have even let you join. But loving eyes are easily clouded." Panther responded.

"Says the blight on my gender…" Billie growled to the womanizing cat.

"Forgive me for simply having a healthy respect for the female body." He said resting his chin on his palm now looking rather bored with the conversation.

"And besides it's not like Wolf is in love with me… what we do is mostly physical…"

"Who are you trying to convince?" Panther said in a slow tone. Billie stared into his slit eyes and saw not a hint of insincerity.

"Oh like you would know what love is…" Leon grunted in amusement at the lady killer.

"I have loved lots of women. Which is I'm sure more than I can say for someone who receives pleasure from tormenting… well everyone."

"No Panther, you just love parts of women." Leon said crossing his arms.

"I could say the same about you…" Panther said eyeing one of Leon's many knives strapped to him. "It would be an easy rumor to believe that you play with the women's corpses after you kill them…"

"Not a rumor if it's true," Leon said with a grin that made Billie a bit uncomfortable.

"Ooooookay; this has been a bit too enlightening of a chat." Billie said quickly standing up. "I'm going to go have a chat with Wolf."

Panther and Leon watched her walk away; when she was out of sight they got right back into their little argument.

* * *

Wolf sat back on the floor leaning against the shredded remains of the punching bag and took a long drag of an e-cig. He was trying to find a way of clearing his mind; expunging his thoughts so he could reassess them. But the silence only made them seem louder. Then not sure if he was really hearing it, or if his mind was toying with him he heard a voice, Billie's voice.

"Wolf? Hey… Woooolf." She called.

"In here!" he gruffed out to her.

A few moments later her white form appeared in the dark hallway; the darkness made the snowy color of her stand out brightly.

"There you are, we need to…" she eyed the shredded mass behind him.

"Holy shit…" she mumbled going slack jawed.

Wolf looked at her tail sway behind those legs as she strolled in. What Billie saw was the blue glow of an e-patch while the lupine sat there smirking up at her in the dim light.

"Are you… okay…?" She asked being careful with choosing her words.

"No." he said his smile growing as he took another puff from the e-cig. It glowed blue like his patch in the dark, then faded as he exhaled the vapor.

"What's the problem?"

"You're my problem…" he said not shifting his gaze at all.

"Me…?" she said feeling her fur start to stand on end. Then she heard a sort of tapping noise; and in the dim light she made out the white tip of Wolf's tail; wagging behind him in quick whooshes making a tapping noise as it hit the floor.

* * *

**This chapter was fun to write! I tried to get you into the heads of Billie and Wolf a bit. And got to throw in one of my favorite songs. I hope you guys like this story... I can't help but read the work of others and sort of feel that this Star Wolf story pales in comparison to many. But meh I'm insecure.**


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

"Wolf, you're starting to freak me out." She said smirking slightly at his wagging tail.

Wolf said nothing, but as his eyes took in her curvy white shape standing in the doorway he found himself licking at his teeth; the familiar twitches that usually set in right before a fight, such as wagging his tail, flexing his and fingers were starting to set in.

"Okay Wolf we really need to talk…" Billie said walking forward but she was cut off.

"Yeah, I've been curious… about you; how much do you remember?" he said looking up at her.

"What are you talking about?" She rolled her eyes.

"When I'm sweating on top of you, and your letting your little shadow fingers loose all over the room… how much do you remember?" His voice came deep from his chest as he dwelled on his own few memories.

"What do you mean? I remember…" Billie trailed off not really knowing how to finish that sentence. She looked at the ground trying to remember something… anything; she couldn't believe she never noticed it before. She had so few memories of it, all in lapsed time.

"I thought so…" Wolf said getting to his feet. "Billie, do you even know how you're doing what you do to me?"

"No I… never noticed it before…" she said starting to wonder if this would affect them both permanently.

"Well, think back to other men you've slept with. How did this affect them?" he shrugged through his teeth.

"You're the only person I've ever had sex with Wolf." She snapped a little insulted.

"In 97 years, you just lost your virginity to me?" He said, a toothy grin growing on his face.

"Yeah so what!?" she said as her face flushed with embarrassment, he looked as though he could laugh at her.

"Nothing, I've just never been anyone's first before." He chuckled. Then he took some steps towards her; her scent had finally reached his nose and begun to leave his mind a bit fuzzy.

"Am I distracting you?" she shot out stepping back.

"Distracting me? …Ugh." He gruffed as his sweet little adrenaline rush calmed down. "Have you been talking to those idiots on the flight deck?"

"Those idiots, and myself are worried about you! You're acting really…" she looked past him at the punching bag he had shred. "… strange."

"Please, everyone insinuating; like they know me so well." He said aggravated. "You're all just on Star Wolf for the money; don't try to doll this up. We are mercenaries nothing more. And that's all I ever wanted out of life."

"No offence _Lord_ O'Donnell; but for our leader; you don't know much about us. Yes we are mercenaries, and money is honey, that goes without say. But how dare you insinuate we don't care about your well being! We may not be particularly flowery about it, but we each care about you in our own way! Especially me! What you think paychecks are all I care about? That I'm just some weird Shadow Legion who uses you to get her rocks off? Well I care a lot! In fact I kind of hate you… jerk!" she yelled to him staring at that gold necklace draped elegantly across his shoulders.

Wolf stood there, not believing her audacity; and yet again felt her enraging him. "And you know what else girly? How dare you tell me to let go of my anger towards McCloud!" he pointed a large clawed finger at her.

"I got along perfectly fine before you showed up! I got everything I ever wanted! Who the hell are you to come in here and try to change me? So what? I want a good fight out of life that's who I am; and if you are going to be a fixture of this team; you and those other two lunk-heads need to find a way to live with that!" He barked practically seeing red.

"Oh, is that all you want out of life ever? A good fight?" she said making fun of his accent.

"Damn straight! What fun is there to be had in peace and quiet; a true warrior can only feel alive on the battlefield! What me and McCloud have is simple physics, two opposing forces that are destined to collide!" He said knowing full well he was only partially telling her the truth. After all; being alone with Billie could give him that same feeling.

Billie thought back on what Leon had told her about him; it seems that was all he wanted; a good fight… quickly running out of ideas she thought it was high time to give him what he wanted… what he **needed. **Billie rose up her left hand and knocked his hand away from her face; then sent her left fist squarely into his muzzle. He coiled back in pain, not expecting that at all.

"You want a fight? Let's go O'Donnell." She said looking at the little trail of blood exiting his nose. He stared up at her with shock; but quickly recovered as he felt that head rush setting in once again.

"I think we've tried this before… the night we met." He said not being able to stop his lips from pulling up into that wolfish grin.

"I wasn't trying that night if you recall!" she spat striking the same stance she had then.

That was all Wolf needed to hear, licking his blood from his muzzle he brought his large hands into fists and tried a roadhouse kick to her face; she ducked away from it with the flexibility of an acrobat and grabbed his ankle. Pulling forward she brought him down to the floor he landed on his tail with a yelp then quickly put his hands on the floor behind him and swept his legs under her ankles bringing her to his level. He brought his fist down on her face but she rolled out of the way; his fist hit the metal with a large clang. Rolling out into the hallway she stood on all fours facing him ready for his next move. He looked at her in the hallway eyeing him with those delicious black eyes; he slowly pulled the hand that had struck the floor up to his face, opened his palm and licked his fingers.

This was it; that adrenaline rush that came from a worthy opponent. For a moment they stared each other down, the only sound that could be heard was their tails swishing through the air. Then Wolf shot forward with a right hook; Billie blocked it with her left arm, but it still hurt. His punches were nothing to sneeze at. Wolf threw a series of punches at her; every one she blocked with her forearms, they slowly rose to their feet during this process. She could feel her arms bruising under the onslaught of his fists; and she desperately wanted to use her shadow lace, but she still didn't understand the effect it was having on them both so thought better of it; plus she was a capable warrior without it. She may not have been able to match him in brute strength; but she was wily. While he was distracted with trying to break the gate of her arms she brought her knee up into his stomach as hard as she could; he gasped as the wind was knocked out of him and she grabbed his head in her hands and brought the crown of her head down into his.

For a moment they both staggered in opposite directions of one another, groaning as they tried to break out of the daze they were left in. Billie's head cleared just two seconds before Wolf's and when he came to all he saw was her fist heading for his face. It made contact and he staggered backward into the room farther; however when her fist came back he caught her wrist and stopped it. She grabbed his arm with her free hand and dug her thumb hard into a pressure point near the bend of his elbow; he growled in pain and his hand loosened just enough for her to wiggle free. She quickly stepped backwards and he made a run after her. She ran back at him; and in a split second she leaped into the air then sprung her legs forward from her bent knees into the full length of her legs: both of her feet collided with the center of his chest. He flew backwards and skidded across the floor back into the room in a heap on the floor. Billie landed on her back, and sucked in air as she stumbled to her feet. Wolf was still a little dazed lying back on the floor; she brought her knees down on his spread arms to pin them down and stared down at him angrily. Wolf looked up and chuckled a little bit in between heavy breathing.

"Right through the heart." He said and looked at how close her crotch was to his face.

"Like you even have a heart." She said still a little hurt by what he had said earlier. Wolf sensed her sincerity and his smile faded.

"Tch." Escaped from his lips and with all of his strength he pulled his upper body up sending Billie backwards; once his hands were free he pushed her all the way down to the floor. Her head hit the metal and her ears rung; she groaned and looked up at the glowing blue eyed silhouette looking down at her. Wolf pinned her wrists down at her sides and used his knees to keep her still.

That was a good little fight; Wolf felt the satisfaction of his head rush come in a full wave as sweat beaded on his skin only to be quickly soaked into his fur. Billie glared up at him as he came into full focus; he made a deep growling noise, and for a moment wanted to drag his teeth across her neck to feel her pounding pulse. He breathed in the sweet smell of their sweat mingling and then brought his bared teeth down to her face in a snarl, but he stopped short near her face and his features lost their sharpness. He looked down at the panting Billie beneath him and drug his tongue across her left cheek.

"Satisfied?" she said as he breathing returned to normal.

"For the moment…" he said licking his lips; he sweat made her salty, and he found himself enjoying it. "That was fun." He said in his deep voice then stood up and stepped away from her.

"Glad** you** thought so…" she said rejecting his hand and pulling herself up. Wolf tried to place his hands on her shoulders but she jerked away and shot daggers at him with her eyes. He raised his eyebrow at her.

"You're unbelievable." She said bitterly. "You know maybe there isn't room for me on this team anymore." She said and turned away.

"That's not your decision to make." Wolf said bending his ears back, the good feelings were gone and he didn't like where this was going.

"I don't see why not." She said in her familiar snarky tone. "After all, I'm just here for the money. And it's all gone now isn't it."

"Oh, get off it Billie! Don't act like you're trying to help me. This is who I am, I have always had to fight; fight to get by; fight for my right to exist. And that has made me strong."

"I **am** trying to help you! And if you can't see that it's your failing, not mine! And now I realize that underneath all of those muscles you are still just a child! A child struggling to get by because that's all he knows. So you fight because it's in your comfort zone, fighting is what you are used to, and that's fine. But I can't believe you'd say that me, Leon and Panther don't care!"

Wolf felt himself snap… she could see right through him like no other… fighting was what he had always lived with so naturally that was the only thing that made him feel alive now. And even though she wasn't aware; the last thing he wanted was for her to leave the team, he might never see her again. And in his fear of losing her he lashed out. He gave her a stony look and clenched his fists.

"Maybe I am like a child! But that's just because when I was a child it was exactly like this! You know Corneria is a nice place… there are a lot of good people, in fact I remember this really nice place where people would leave kids that they didn't want!" He blazed at her and she gave him a puzzled look.

"All my mother ever left me was this little piece of jewelry and a very vague memory of her face. No one gave a shit! I was just another orphan; just another blister in the mouth of shame. So the fuck what? I needed clothes; I got them. I needed food; I got it. I needed money; I got it! That is how I always got by, and that is the way I choose to live." He stopped realizing he had said too much. He growled down at the floor and turned away from her.

'Great…' he thought. 'now she's gonna throw me some little pity party.' Billie stood there not sure what to say or do.

"I'm not trying to change you Wolf. I think you are fine as is… it's just natural to worry about people close to you. Maybe this is new for you and you don't quite know how to feel…" Her voice was soft and pleasant on his ears, like satin.

"But…" she placed a soft hand on his shoulder. "You have to let us help you… you need to stop focusing so much on… well, me. I don't know what the shadow lace is doing to you but I'm sorry… I should have paid closer attention. But caring for people, is not a trait of weakness."

"I understand." He said his voice a little raspy from yelling. And for the first time in his life; Wolf felt as though his Star Wolf family genuinely cared for him. Even if they had an odd way of displaying it. Then he heard Billie's footsteps leaving, he quickly turned around and saw her exiting the room.

"Billie…" he said; she stopped and looked back in at him. "You're not leaving are you?"

"Nah… someone has to keep an eye on you; so you don't wind up killing yourself looking for a good fight." She joked. He was really beginning to like that snarky little tone she used when she made a joke. She turned to leave but then stopped…

"Uh… Wolf?" He blankly stared in her direction. "There was another planet near Esreia that housed a group of warriors, kind of like Shadow Legion, minus the cool powers." She said waving her hands through the air.

"Ahem anyways… they only believed in fighting with swords, they would craft their own swords and give them names. They were a religious sect who believed that no one could be born with a soul, but that you had to earn one by going through a lot of trials and suffering. Like a blacksmith repeatedly striking a sword to make it realize its full potential…" she trailed off in thought.

Wolf stood there in the darkness letting those words sink in, waiting for her to continue.

"Well, no matter what you choose to do; we'll stand by you. You're never in this alone, I just… thought you should know." She nodded to him and left down the hallway. Wolf felt a nagging sort of weight in his chest, he tried to shrug it off as he went to pick up his coat, but he couldn't shake it.

* * *

Panther and Leon were sitting around the hollow projector playing some sort of star ship game verses each other.

"Bwahaha! I win again!" Leon jeered as Panthers screen said you lose.

"Can we watch television now?" Panther said in a rather bored tone. "I think 'Cat Fights Caught on Camera' will be on soon."

"Oh come on, I'm having fun wiping the floor with you."

Billie walked past them through the lounge area looking tired and messy from the fight; Leon and Panther looked at her as she grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge and chugged it down.

"Well?" Leon hissed to her.

"Please tell me you two didn't…" Panther trailed off.

"No we got into a fist fight. But he's better now." Billie smiled. Panther and Leon shot each other a 'suuuure' sort of look.

"Hehe, relax guys I took care of it. He'll be fine now." She said and walked out of the room to continue her work on the generators.

"I do not understand women…" Leon said as she shrank out of sight.

"No… but they understand us. And they know we don't understand them." Panther said flipping the hollow generator to television mode.

* * *

**Well, now that mood had been established we can get into some more action! Tell me in the reviews what you would like to see next. Who knows it may change the order of the story; or even bring it to you faster. But much more exiting things going to be happening now that we have the mushy crap out of the way.**


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Several hours after the fight everyone in Sargasso began to feel the call of sleep pulling at them. Panther and Leon had gone to bed before Billie, who was seriously considering it as her eyes started to cross; each lid wanting desperately to collapse under their own weight. The fight with Wolf had left her a bit drained, and her forearms screamed out in a throbbing mass of bruises from where Wolf had laid out his barrage of punches. What Billie did not know, was that if Wolf really had indented to harm her he would have used his claws to shred away flesh and not his fists; so who would really win in a fight between the two if they went all out… it is difficult to say for sure. But she was almost done with the wiring for the last generator core: she had prepared four, even though the entire base Wolf had planned out would only need two in order to operate, but it was always best to have backups. The cores themselves almost looked like hearts, with the clear chamber directly in the middle where Billie would feed in her shadow lace to bring it to life, and the tangled rainbow of wires springing out of the top and the bottom. She sat in the silence surrounded by her four dead hearts, the only sound that filled the air was the clink of her hands working with the small pliers.

Wolf was in his office feeling insomnia set back in as everyone else got to sleep; he got to stay awake and be alone with his thoughts. He slowly strummed his clawed fingers on the armrest of his office chair and stared out at the fields of stars pressed against their ebony background. He had told Billie more than he had intended today; and that made his thoughts race just a bit. Would she tell anyone? Was he going soft? Was it too late to go back? Was she right about Leon and Panther? He shook his head to silence the inquisition in his head and then a new topic popped out into the silence for him to ponder; he needed some work that was worthy of his time for a change. And if McCloud's little crew was taking all of the honest work he was going to have to take something worth the time for the money. But now that word had gotten out of Star Wolf's footing on the smuggler's rock it was only a matter of time until someone came to them. He got up with a sigh and decided to let it be.

As Wolf headed down the walkways that honeycombed through he looked down to see the only other person still awake other than himself; busy with her work down on the flight deck.

"No music today?" he asked coming off of the elevator and walking up behind her.

"Nah I'm almost done here…" she yawned.

Wolf looked at the clear cores laying around the desk she had thrown together out of old crates; he walked up to look more closely at one. It looked so intricate, so many minor little details.

"So how do they work?" he asked tapping the claw of his index finger against one sending out and almost musical chime into the air.

"It would take all day to explain in detail…" she yawned not looking up to him from her sleepily working hands. "But basically once they are on Fichina I just hook them up to the base and feed them some shadow lace… they are pretty much a less complicated version of the core in my ship."

"Why is the core in your ship different?" he asked looking over at it resting next to his Wolfen.

"Devin built that one… I'll never be able to replicate that… The engine in that ship has never faltered or even needed repair in the 70 or so years of its existence. It's one of a kind; it could power **this** entire base if I wanted it too. That's why I need more than one core of my creation to power a smaller base; because my hands are not as practiced as Devin's were." She said almost sounding bored.

"But you're much older than he ever was now."

"Yeah, but I'm still not as skillful as that old cyborg was…" she chuckled through a yawn marveling at Devin's skill even now. Then she stretched her arms out with a big yawn and rose to her feet. "DONE." She proclaimed throwing her pliers into her toolbox.

Wolf looked down at her handy work; she had finished much faster than he had thought she would, having so much time to spare was wonderful it gave them more time to wait on a job.

"I'm going to go lay down before I fall down…" she said brushing past him with dark rings under her eyes. He caught a big whiff of her scent; there was still a tinge of salt on her from their sweaty fight.

"Billie…" he said to her back; she stopped walking but didn't turn around.

"About earlier…" he began feeling something unfamiliar to him. He didn't like it.

"Water under the bridge." She said simply and kept walking. However as she said that Wolf finally identified the bitter feeling he couldn't shake: shame.

"It's not." He said trotting after her. "Billie." He said stepping in front of her to stop her from walking.

"Billie when we were fighting, there was a moment where I wanted to… I wanted to…" he trailed off remembering himself in that split second wanting to rip her neck open with his teeth. What if this happened again? What if he couldn't regain control of his senses in time then?

"Wolf its fine. Just stop spacing out; your starting to freak us out that's all" she said brushing past him again to get to bed before she collapsed. He clasped her forearm angrily wanting to make her listen to him.

"Ouch!" she snapped as he squeezed a bruise.

"What? I didn't grab you that hard." He snapped back at her reaction.

"No; but I'm still pretty bruised up from your treating my arms like a punching bag in , you know instead of the one you shredded today?" she said in her sarcastic way.

"Well my chest still hurts from your kick." He said angrily in his defense.

"Okay, whatever." She said making one last attempt to find a bed to fall into. Wolf slapped his palm to his face as if to say 'well played Wolf.'

Billie walked off into the base leaving Wolf alone on the flight deck. She really held no grudge against him after their argument. She could see this whole thing was extremely new to him and he was trying to adjust. But she really wanted to sleep right now. When she arrived in Wolf's dark room she felt her way through until she felt mattress; then fell down in a heap and passed out.

* * *

"Morning." Billie chimed, clean and well rested to Wolf who was standing around the lounge room with Panther and Leon. Wolf looked over from where he was leaning with his arms crossed and sort of nodded to acknowledge her. Leon was sitting off on the other side of the room at a pool table that doubled as a normal table, sharpening some nasty looking piece of weaponry. Panther was flipping from station to station looking rather bored.

"So, then I was going to get working on the generator frames today… unless you have something planned." It sounded like a question. But everyone looked rather unenthused today… and Billie couldn't help but wonder if Wolf had gotten any sort of rest last night; he looked worn out.

"You've been working that pretty white tail off sweetheart; why don't you take some of today to relax." Panther purred looking over his shoulder at her.

"Don't become like that lazy ass Billie…" Leon shot over; Panther looked like he had taken a slap to the back of the head and turned to Leon's direction.

"I don't recall inviting you to this conversation." He said always being able to keep the texture of silk to his tone. Billie giggled a bit and made her way over to Wolf in his little corner.

"So any plans boss?" she joked standing in his eye line. Wolf looked down at her face and she lost her smile as she saw the tired glass of his eye; what Billie didn't know was that he had in fact been up all night but he was in the room with Billie, sitting on the edge of the bed listening to her loud breathing. He had been trying to let it lull him to sleep but found it hadn't worked. About an hour before she awoke he had given up and come in here to watch the news.

"Maybe a day off is a good idea." She said putting her hand on Wolfs arm; she lightly tugged him over to sit on the semicircular sunken in sofa that surrounded one side of the hollow generator. Wolf sat next to Billie and she leaned on him slightly; he responded by crossing his arms again, looping her bruised forearm in under his arm. And let the desire for some pulse pounding, gut wrenching action go to the back of his mind… just for the moment. Wolf O'Donnell learned something that day from Billie Shade's long life of regrets; enjoy the little things. Even if it's only for a little while. Billie took this as his apology, they understood each other better than either one thought, words were unnecessary for things like this now, after their time together they were sort of rubbing off on one another.

"So; Panther what did you do before you joined Star Wolf?" Billie said trying to force some small talk. She had bared her past before them before and thought this subject might be good for bonding or something…

"Oh, a great many things." The cat said turning his attention to some lingerie shoot on the projector.

"He was probably a gigolo…" Wolf muttered looking at his choice of television.

"I wish; that would have been my dream job. But my father wanted to become a pilot; and he shelled out a pretty penny to get me into the Cornerian flight academy. Ahhh if only I hadn't been kicked out… I may have been a member of the Cornerian military." The cat said leaning back admiring a bodacious, busty model.

"You were kicked out of the flight academy?" Wolf laughed not too surprised. "What did you do nail the deans daughter?"

"The headmasters actually…" Panther chimed.

"SHUT. UP." Billie said feeling like some gossiping teenager.

"Oh my yes… she was a gazelle; literally. The most gorgeous creature I ever did lay my eyes upon… up until that point at least. As soon as I laid eyes on her I had to have her; to pounce on her, she was my prey. The attraction was mutually instant." Panther went on like he was rehearsing a play. He kept going on about her features; every one.

"…And those legs!"

"Panther!" Wolf said wanting him to get to the point.

"Oh yes; well anyways she was also a student there… we had two classes together. And one day she said that she was sick and tired of all of the boys running away from her in fear of her father. She said she needed a man who was unafraid, and she wanted desperately to get back at her father for making her so miserable as well: that was just a bonus." He said purring caught in his nostalgia.

"Wait a second…" Wolf mumbled.

"We had the wildest, hottest, sweatiest, most pulse pumping two hours in her father's office; right on his desk. By the third release she said she felt like her insides would fall out…"

Billie sort of cringed at how detailed he was starting to become.

"But I digress… right in the middle of about her 20th orgasm her father walked in on us."

Billie's mouth fell open in shock, and Wolf bent his ears back knowing what came next.

"Her father must have lost his mind at the sight of his daughter sweaty, in the grip of pleasure; he picked up an award he had won for something stupid and trivial… and well." Panther ran some smooth black fingers over the scar on his face. "Let's just say he gave me a souvenir."

Billie's jaw dropped; surely he was lying, there was no way this was true but then Wolf cut in with the ending.

"Then you jumped out of the window, landed in a rosebush; and the headmaster used an antique musket to chase your naked ass over the green? That was you!?" Wolf said disgusted.

"Ah, so you were in my class then?" Panther asked sounding pleased with himself.

"I didn't graduate either… decided to leave." Wolf said thinking back on the day James had taken his eye. "Bu you sick son of a bitch…" Wolf gruffed trying to stop visualizing the day he'd been exiting the e-library and saw that spectacle. He couldn't believe he had added that dope to his team.

"WAIT, so what happened after that?!" Billie cried having to hear the ending, she didn't want to; she had to.

"My father disowned me and the headmaster expelled me; had to do something to get by, so I decided to apply my piloting skills to the black market. The rest is history." He finished the story with a shrug. Billie put her hand over her mouth to keep it from hanging open.

"You asked…" Panther said looking at her reaction.

"I did… and yet I wasn't… prepared." She said through her hand.

Then Billie looked over to Leon in his corner of the room; sharpening a very large knife, looking at it like one would a lover.

"So uhm… What's Leon's story?" She bravely asked out to no one. Panther shrugged and they looked at Wolf.

"You don't wanna know." He said flatly.

"But-" they both argued before Wolf cut them off.

"Trust me. He shouldn't have told me; but he did. And now I'm telling you: YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW." He said in a stern voice dismissing the subject.

Billie and Panther looked at each other, then at Leon, then back to Wolf: and they burst out in a fit of laughter. Wolf started tapping his heel a little aggravated at them for bringing the memory back up, then a little chiming noise came from his e-patch; he recognized the caller.

"Everyone shut up! And Leon get over here!" he barked then stood up. He then proceeded to put the caller up on the hollow projector.

"Ah; there you are. You know I was beginning to suspect that Team Star Wolf had died on the Aparoid home world. I'm glad to see those rumors were exadurated." Came a stony voice from a face on the hollow projector. Billie recognized the tiger; it was the infamous crime boss Dexter Tyson. She had hauled in quite a few of his men. And she felt herself trying to sink back into her seat, wanting to disappear.

"Been a long time." Wolf said up to the face of the predator looming down on them.

* * *

**Okay, had to tie up a few odds and ends; but next chapter the real action starts to reveal itself. Added in some comedy relief since their lives can be pretty hectic. And a special shout out to zewing who requested a little peek into the past of Panther and Leon; i hope you liked what i did there. I tried to keep the mood light and airy in this one; but now shit gets serious! keep reading my lovlies and don't forget to review.**


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

"Been a long time." Wolf said up to the face of the predator looming down on them.

"Yes, a bit too long." Dexter said looking down at Wolf and his still very much intact team.

Billie had made quite a few catches from his bands of underlings. In the world of organized crime; Dexter Tyson was the go to name for any of the big boys. On several occasions the very man now speaking to Wolf had sent assassins after her to get her to stop causing trouble for him and his people; they all failed and for some time she thought he had just given up. Now sitting here, on a team that worked for him; it made her stomach knot up in a way that made her feel like she might hurl.

The exceedingly tall figure of the cat looked down at them with cold blue eyes, all tigers were large but the projector gave him a presence in the room that was quite unnerving. Billie almost forgot she was technically not his enemy anymore and the hair on her arms and tail began to stand on end.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Wolf said putting on his business face. Leon came over and sat between Billie and Panther; the three of them looked on like children as the two 'adults' spoke of business.

"A couple of things first of all; are the rumors true? Is the Radical Billie Shade now a proud Star Wolf member?" the cat's eyes scanned the place the camera from this end would allow him to see. Wolf looked at her and tossed his head as if to say 'get over here'. Billie reluctantly got up and stood next to Wolf.

"Ahh, at last we meet Billie… the former bane of my existence." His tone was like sheets of dry ice. Billie shook it right off finding her old bounty hunter instincts.

"Yeah it's me alright; you know I thought you were dead." She joked seeming fearless.

"You two, know each other?" Wolf asked up to the projection.

"Oh my yes… everyone in the organized crime world knows of the great Billie Shade! The radical bounty hunter who hauls in the worst scum in the galaxy. In one year alone she caused my profits to shrink 17 percent." He looked down at her in contempt the entire time. Wolf saw a smirk on Billie's face that he had only ever seen once before: the night they had met when she drew her gun on him. It was a smirk only she could pull off, she looked happy but angry and worn out at the same time. Wolf didn't have a good feeling about Dexter's intentions since the first thing he addressed was the bad blood with one of his team members. Then he thought it best to interrupt their little staring contest.

"So what's the other reason we are speaking?" Wolf said standing in front of Billie to get Tyson's attention.

"Ah yes; now that I have that little thorn out of my side…" he said looking over Wolf at Billie. "I need several assassinations taken care of."

"Who are the targets?" Wolf said commanding back Tyson's attention.

"They used to do business with me frequently; getting supplies smuggled into my sector of the Lylat system, and even paying me protection fees. But after that Aparoid business or whatever it was, they decided to cut me out of their business quite entirely. I would like Star Wolf to show them the error of their ways; and then kill them." He spoke as if they were shooting the breeze over tea, this was just another day of business to him.

"How many targets? And how much will we be receiving?"

"I am going to wire 300,000 Lylat credits to the Star Wolf account now; and when the last target is finished off and you send me proof of their demise, I will transfer the other half plus the cost of doing business. Fair enough?"

"Fair enough." Wolf said keeping his composure; even though he was ecstatic to hear the amount; just for killing a few people.

"Good; I will send you the details of each target, and transfer the first half now. Oh and Wolf there is one catch."

"Of course there is." He said, Wolf had been waiting for that.

"Billie has to be present for each assassination." He said returning that frigid gaze to her still standing behind Wolf; who was a bit thrown back by the request.

"Well of course she'll be, she's a member of my team… but why do you ask?"

"Because I want the bounty hunter who used to cause me so much grief to know where she stands now. She may command **your** loyalty… but I know old habits die hard. I want Billie Shade to know who owns her now."

Something deep down inside Wolf wanted to claw Tyson's face off for daring to say that he could own Billie; but it was a lot of money, so he kept his outward composure.

"She'll be there." He spat still making an effort to be polite. Billie felt her stomach knot over again and kept her stony glare on the projector.

"Good… oh and Wolf? If you and your little squad fail: I've never heard of you." And with that the figure on the hollow projector vanished without a noise.

"Panther check the account." Wolf barked quickly. Panther smoothly arose from his seat and made his way to the row of monitors on the side of the room Wolf had been leaning on earlier.

Billie stood there; clenching her fists in rage at Tyson's words, looking down gritting her teeth and letting her thoughts race.

"Billie-" Wolf started but was cut off by Panther.

"I'll be damned: the money is already in." He said from across the room.

"So then we are doing this?" Leon said exited for an assassination at long last. Wolf looked at Billie in her silent rage, at the same time felt his own rage drop at the promise of that money. Money they could use to finish up the base preparation on Fichina.

"Yes." Billie finally said for him. All three members looked at her uneasy. "What? I'm damn good at what I do; and this is nothing new to me; I've taken many a bounty that called for the subject to be dead first. So stop looking at me like a child Wolf."

Wolf hadn't realized it, but he had been giving her a soft sort of stare; he snapped himself out of it and nodded.

"She's right, this is exactly the sort of job we've been waiting for. And damnit we are taking it. If we get in good with Dexter Tyson; jobs will be thrown our way faster than we can do them." He concluded.

"But do you trust him?" Panther said, the tiger's general tone towards Billie had not been lost on anyone. Wolf looked to Billie; it was her opinion he was concerned with.

"No. To be perfectly honest something about this feels weird… but it doesn't matter; the base on Fichina is underway and we need money. This job is more important than my feelings." Billie said swallowing her racing thoughts down.

"I'm sure it's not a trap anyways…" Wolf shrugged off. Then approached the monitor where Panther was sitting. "Pull up the list he sent us." He gruffed.

* * *

The list Tyson had sent was five targets long; their files, their habits, their bases of operations: and of course instructions on exactly how Dexter wanted them to suffer before they died. Everyone in underground Lylat knew not to cross Dexter Tyson. The Star Wolf members stood around the projector in a circle looking at the first target.

"His name is Martin; he's a raven; age 49. He used to be an accountant over keeping Dexter's transactions. One day he found himself on Tyson's shit list when he was found embezzling money from his personal accounts." Panther read out in his velvety voice for all to observe during the briefing.

"Guy musta' had brass balls." Wolf said looking at his picture.

"He was using the embezzled money on what others in Tyson's group described as a lavish lifestyle. Going to clubs, buying expensive clothes; thousand dollar escorts. You name it. When Tyson found out he broke one of the birds arms with his fist; the bird got away and used his money and connections to disappear." Panther continued.

"Yeah, but Tyson's connections are always better aren't they…" Billie said under her breath.

"That they are dear." Panther said to his comrade. "Apparently the raven went into hiding on Corneria… Such a vast city with a dense population he thought he could disappear easily. And he did; until the Aparoids destroyed the place. While Corneria city itself lies in ruins from the invasion, New Lullix city to the south remains somewhat intact since the Aparoids were focusing on the military personal in Corneria's capital."

"That's where he went after the invasion?" Billie asked. Panther nodded.

"New Lullix city was a dump to start with." Wolf said. "Nothing there but casinos and hookers." Wolf didn't care much for gambling; he used to not mind prostitutes but now that he was with Billie; a place like New Lullix had nothing to offer him.

"Yes, well that is how Martin was found… old habits die hard. And nothing happens in the Casino world without Tyson hearing about it. The avian it seems is still spending an obscene amount of Tyson's money; and Tyson wants us to…" he trailed off reading into the file. "Choke the target with a stack of bills." He echoed reading through.

"Tacky…" Leon said. Although Leon loved to make people suffer, when it came time to deliver the killing blow he preferred something more precise; like a knife thrust to the jugular.

"Yeah; Tyson always did leave tacky calling cards. Mostly for showmanship though… If you're going to kill someone just do it, why worry about how it's done." Billie rolled her eyes.

Wolf scanned his eyes over the file, in thought.

"So how are we going to go about this?" Leon asked eager for some action.

"Well; the tiger gave us no set time limit. I suppose that means he wants us to pick the best moment to take each one down."

"Good." Wolf said coming out of his thought. "That means we have some time to settle into the Fichina base and make a plan."

"I already have one." Billie said; all three of them looked at her. "I'm going to get into his penthouse and finish him myself." She said like a true mercenary.

"His penthouse is guarded by hired thugs round the clock; what do you expect to just walk in there?" Wolf said with a chuckle.

"Uh-huh." Billie nodded over to him.

"Yeah; and what makes you think he'll let you in there girly?" Wolf said a bit amused.

"They're called boobs Wolf." She said with a slight glare over at him.

Wolf widened his eye in surprise not liking where this was going.

"That's brilliant!" Leon exclaimed. "This guy has a weakness for prostitutes; we'll let Billie pose as one. Let his weakness be his downfall." Leon applauded Billie's thinking.

"What? No!" Wolf snapped.

"Why not? It's perfect; the man is unfamiliar with her face, he likes prostitutes and is highly likely to bring her up to his room. It's perfect." Panther said agreeing with Leon.

"Yeah Wolf; I thought I told you to stop treating me like a child." Billie snapped. "I'm a member of your team just like both of them; if you were sending one of them in there you wouldn't bat an eye."

"Damnation…" Wolf said under his breath, it was a good plan. "Nothing below his belt or yours." He growled.

"Oh please Wolf; I just had breakfast that is disgusting…" she rolled her eyes. That made Wolf smile on the inside.

"Okay then; this is a go?" Panther asked the bickering love birds.

"It's a go." Wolf said with a nod.

"Oh goodie I get to go shopping!" Billie clapped. "And the best part is we can write it off as an expense! Oh this is just too good." She giggled.

"Had to go to Fichina anyways…" Wolf mumbled.

* * *

**That's right! I just saw Ocean's Eleven and I'm in a casino kind of mood. Think of New Lullix as the Vegas of Corneria. I don't know why in the Star Fox games you only hear about Corneria City. The more you reveiw the faster you'll see the next chapter, I'm in a serious writing mood today... XD**


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

"Okay these are ready to go." Billie said as the evening came upon them in Sargasso. She had just finished up the two generator frames and mounted the cores inside. If one of the glass cores was unable to function for any reason she had two backups which she tucked neatly away into a small box filled with bubble wrap to keep them from moving around.

"I love this stuff…" she said popping a few before closing the box.

"Alright get down here as soon as you can then." Wolf said to her over chat on his e-patch.

"I'm on my way. How are things looking down there?" She asked through her red lens to Wolf all the way down on Fichina.

"It's really coming together. Not livable yet, but we can start setting up." Wolf said looking around at the skeleton of their new base that had been carved into the underground. Everything it needed to stay standing was there; support beams and all of the exits. But the place was still littered with tools and wires: the tech eagerly awaited Billie to come down and breathe life into the base.

"Not livable… well I guess they could only work so fast." She said loading up the cargo bay of her baby. "Where are we going to stay?"

"We can risk a crappy hotel in Fichina city tonight. I got something nice to show yah when you get down here."

"Oh yeah? Tell me it isn't that Panther and Leon are going too…"

"Nah; Panther can stay in Sargasso tonight. But I'll tell yah we're gonna have fun on this thing." He said in a deep throat that Billie really loved about him.

Billie chuckled and put on her fluffy red coat knowing well the cold of Fichina, and strapped herself into her baby as the engines roared to life at her retina scan. She waved a goodbye to Panther who was standing on an elevated pathway with a cup of coffee; he waved back as her cockpit closed and she blasted away, leaving Sargasso behind.

* * *

A few shit kicker rock songs later; Billie was breaching the atmosphere of Fichina, near the city, on the outskirts of which their new base was cleverly hidden. She looked out into the distance watching the setting sun break over one of the planets weather generators that pierced the sky with its tallness. And in that little hallmark card moment she felt very small; a small organism in her small ship. The heat of the atmosphere broke away and was replaced by the frigid Fichina air. Her baby cut down through it with an echoing roar and the ground became larger as she did her nose dive towards it. Looking up she could see the city's skyline taking on a beautiful pinkish hue with the setting sun taking its leave.

She shot farther and farther down; then when she came upon one side of a rather small mountain, she quickly pulled up into a ship tunnel that had been freshly carved into the rock; and was facing away from the city so no one could see it. She slowed her pace traveling down through the tunnel which grew darker and darker.

"This place is gonna need some lighting…" she mumbled. She pulled downward and emerged into a room with a raised metal deck away from the jagged rocks below, in the dark she made out the shape of a Wolfen; clearly this was the flight deck. As her ship shut down she got out and her boots made clings on the metal floor.

"Wolf?" She asked when she saw the blue glow of a silhouetted left eye in the hallway leading out of the flight deck. "I can barely see in here. How are you seeing?"

"Inferred." He said looking out at the red humanoid figure walking towards him up against the cold blue walls. "It actually makes for halfway decent night vision."

"You're welcome." She said grabbing a backpack from behind her seat and strapping it on. "Putting lights up in here is going to be a bitch." She said grabbing his arm for support in the dark.

"Nah, it's already done. All throughout the base are motion detecting lights; we just need your generators. But that is for tomorrow: right now I want to show you something."

"Wow, you really got good people on this huh?" She said a bit impressed that they were able to get so much done in so little time.

Wolf walked her through the dark on his arm, then turned off inferred with a little click to the side of his patch. And in a sort of garage like area there were a few windows overlooking a steep cliff off of one side of the mountain; and in the dim light of twighlight Billie saw the lone vehicle parked in the center facing another smaller tunnel that led out of the base.

"No way." She smiled broadly almost laughing. "What did you do?"

In front of them was a motorcycle; with two perfectly spherical tires that made it look like it could role in absolutely any direction. It was painted with the same color scheme as his Wolfen; and it sort of looked handmade.

"You didn't…" she laughed.

"You think you're the only one who can build things? Besides I figured if we needed a fast way into Fichina city without drawing too much attention to ourselves; well I designed this baby for deep snow. We can get in and out of Fichina city in a flash." He smiled showing off his sharp teeth.

"When did you find the time to do this?"

"It was a project I started a long time ago… I like feeling the wind in my hair." He said running a clawed hand through his mow hawk.

"Have you broken it in yet?" Billie asked hoping she might get to drive.

"I wish… so we are going to have to take it a bit slower than I'd like through the mountains."

"Damn." She stomped her foot.

"Yeah enough talk; let's get some dinner." He said sitting in the large leather seat grasping the handlebars. Billie stared on as if she didn't know what to do; she did but she was finding herself really liking the way he looked on the cycle. He turned his head and raised an eyebrow.

"Unless you'd rather stay here…" He joked.

She hopped on back and wrapped her arms around his waist: he savored that feeling for a moment and let his tail nestle nicely between her legs. She leaned her face on his right shoulder plate and he revved the engine to life with a fingerprint scan. Billie had been expecting a large boom, or some kind of loud obnoxious engine noise: but the engine firing up underneath them was surprisingly quiet. It let off the same kind of whistle that one would expect from an Arwing.

"Ready?" He smirked over his shoulder revving the engine. She nodded and they took off down the tunnel. At first it was a straight go, then it arched up and they shot out of the mountainside through some powder snow. Billie laughed in enjoyment as she watched the flakes fall around them.

The large treaded spheres handled the snow very well; as they rode on the snow flurried in swirls and swooshes behind them where the tires were throwing it. Wolf made a sharp turn and they went sideways down the mountain; Billie screamed through laughs like they were on a rollercoaster and he looked down to how the tire design was handling the drive from the side. They were doing exactly as they were advertised, he smirked and flipped it forward as they went downhill, he revved up the engines a bit more and they felt their stomachs lurch with the downward motion.

"This is so fuuuuun!" Billie said letting go of Wolf's waist and tossing her hands back into the air. When they reached level ground Wolf looked back at her smiling and raising her hands up in the air; she watched the snow flurry around in the air between her fingers, savoring the moment that would become a fond memory. The aurora borealis that was now slithering its way through the night sky reflected in those big black eyes and he found himself staring. Those eyes fit so perfectly into the curve of her face; and that deep color like an endless void. Although he had never given it a second thought he now found his temperature rising; she was beautiful. She put her hands on his shoulders for support and looked at his gaze.

"You want to do something really fun?" she said with a big grin. Her eyes clouded into pure black and Wolf snapped his head forward to see the shadow lace bleeding its way through the air to form some sort of ramp.

"Hell yeah!" Wolf said feeling his adrenaline rush: he ran the cycle over the shadowed ramp and they sailed through the air. He heard Billie laughing behind him and caught her scent in the howling wind that ran through them like a knife in the cold. But with his rising temperature and that head rush setting in he took little notice to the cold. They came back down to the snow below with a poof; the flakes they had sent flying up slowly drifted back down behind them as they sped on leaving that place behind.

Wolf looked up and the dark sky, lighting up with the rainbow of lights and of course centered perfectly; Fichina's moon. He took in the warm sensation of Billie returning her arms to his waist and as his head rush set into full swing he let out a loud thundering howl up the moon. Billie smirked when she saw that; and she decided to join in with her half lupine instincts. She gazed up at the colored sky; the lights of the aurora borealis dancing around the moon as if they were paying it tribute. She howled up, not quite as loudly as Wolf but she did let herself get lost in it. Wolf revved the engine up and they jumped over a snow dune and as they plopped back down with the city growing larger in front of them: they both turned up their heads and howled up to the moon. Listening to the lovely chorus of one another's howls, like a haunting melody of that same primeval feeling that would take Wolf's head from time to time.

They broke onto the smooth highway leading into the city from the outskirts; still howling, as if they were singing a serenade to a lover. Wolf took one last look up at the sky as his satisfied adrenaline rush began to leave him. He was being pulled into the city now; to all things modern and 'acceptable'. He dared a glance back at Billie who was still gazing up at the sky with those big doe eyes. The pace of the cycle began to slow as he turned his full attention to her; her haunting song of howls still ringing fresh in his brain, she looked down at him and they shattered the space between them in a hot, passionate kiss. The song of their howls spoke more than they realized; it spoke to the primal place deep in the back of every wolf's mind, they both felt a tingling pleasure that seemed to make them immune to the cold. And finally as he revved the engine back up to speed they broke away from their kiss, gasping a bit like they were coming up for air after being under the water for a little too long. Wolf looked forward and licked her sweetness off of his lips with a smirk. Billie grabbed back onto him and tried to silence the tingling pleasure screaming through her frame: she just put her face into his back and sucked in his scent but unfortunately all that did was make her a little wet.

* * *

Putting her feet back on the ground as they pulled into a parking lot was like stepping back into reality; all of the buildings crowding them felt like they had just fallen out of the sky. Then next thing she knew she was sitting next to Wolf in a booth in the back of a dead empty little diner. Suddenly she felt a little flushed and slid her coat off as menus were placed in front of each of them. Wolf looked down at his with his coat still on: was she the only one who was feeling so dazed by the ride down here? Was he used to adrenaline rushes like that? They ordered and were then left alone by their avian waiter to talk.

"So do you have any idea how long tomorrow will take?" he asked sipping away at his water.

"How long what will take?" He gave her a weird look when she said that.

"Oh, the generators!" she said a little flustered. "If you already have the lights set up then like an hour or two should be plenty…" she said rubbing her eyes.

"Good; the sooner it's running the sooner we can start moving all of our crap into it. Now about the casino on Corneria." Wolf's tone grew soft and faded as the waiter returned with their food.

"Enjoy." He said sounding not so thrilled about his job.

"Yeah, I can keep in touch with you via ear piece; but I won't be able to speak to you until the target is gone." She said taking a bite of something she hoped was meat… it looked like meat.

"I got a layout of the casino's penthouse." He said fiddling with his e-patch. Her headgear then chimed and she flipped out the red lens and looked over the blueprints.

"We are going to need his daily habits if I am going to cross his path at all."

"I got Leon on that. He should be arriving in New Lullix soon. He's always been good with stealth… so long as he doesn't talk." Wolf said taking a bite of whatever he had gotten. Billie giggled at the thought of Leon blowing his cover by talking in that high pitched voice.

Wolf liked that laugh; and the rush of the cold wind on him amidst her howling was still fresh in his head. Once again the thought of work fell out of his head and was replaced by Billie. He put his hand on her thigh and slowly rubbed it upward. This caused her to swallow hard in surprise and she looked up at him; there was that same look in his eye, like when they had fought in the gym.

They drove across town until they found a small, questionable hotel; one where few questions were asked even if criminals were recognized. They made their way up to the second story and Billie tossed her coat and backpack onto the bed.

"Whew, I could use a hot shower." She stretched taking off her boots ready for some sleep. Wolf had only had one thing on his mind since they left the restaurant and he finally ad Billie alone. He closed the door and secured all five locks; tossed the room key down to the floor with his coat and approached Billie in the dimly lit room.

She was gazing up at the colors still dancing around in the sky when two large arms surrounded her. He pressed his muzzle against the back of her head and breathed her in; her scent and the promise of what was to come made his tail wag through the air wildly.

"Wolf shouldn't we…" she trailed off as his hands found their way down to her belt buckle.

"We still don't know what effect the shadow lace is having on you…" she argued; but this did not detour him in the least. Billie could feel him pressed up against her, he was already hard as stone and he was breathing hard against the back of her head.

"Wolf should we…" she gasped in surprise as he carefully slid his fingers inside of her; moving them very slowly to make sure his claws didn't tear away at her flesh. Billie felt her knees buckle, he supported her weight with one arm and raised the other out of her; she looked up at him licking her juices off of his fingers, on his face was that gaze he looked at her with each time; each time he became more animal than human.

"I'm out of excuses…" she said feeling her head grow fuzzy.

"Finally…" he said and bent her over the bed. He broke his old record at taking her clothes off by a large margin; Billie arched over the bed naked as the day she was born gripping the sheets in frustration. Dull gray stripes were forming on her wrists; as Wolf dug his muzzle deep inside of her, licking and lapping up everything he could from her clenching walls.

This was frustrating for Billie because she could not let herself enjoy it; she had to hold back her shadow lace, she still had no idea how it was effecting them when they were alone but she was hoping it would wear off. She yelped and collapsed to the bed in relief as he withdrew is mouth from her. But she could hear him un-buckling his belt, and his zipper sliding down quickly… the tingling of the metal as he slid his pants down. He licked her off of his muzzled and put his large hands around her waist; this is what he had been waiting for since the last time, this was his adrenaline rush and this time he would see it all.

He barreled himself into her; she gritted her teeth as she stretched out to fit his massive organ. He let out a variety of wolfish noises as he moved himself in and out of her on powerful legs. Billie grunted through her fuzzy thoughts, the last thing she felt was him leaning on back of her and biting at one of her ears lightly with a growl; and his hands moving up and down her body.

Then right at that little moment between pleasure and pain she spoke her last:

"W-o-olf…. I… OH GOD!" There were too many emotions swirling around within her she could not contain it any longer; the shadow lace broke free from her and rushed throughout the room.

"Yeeees!" Wolf howled as he became shrouded in the dark. Even though he could not remember anything after the fact, the shadow lace added something to having sex with Billie; it was like he could feel her all around. It was so warm and inviting, the black tendrils that kissed at his face were like Billie's hands, and they caressed him everywhere at once. He felt his body start to shutter on its own with the promise of release as he heard Billie almost screaming beneath him. And the last thing he remembered was gripping at her thighs until he was sure the tips of his claws had pierced flesh and howling up into the blackness of her.

How long did they continue? How many times did they go? It was always impossible to tell; but needless to say they each loved every second.

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**FUN FACT: did you know wolves don't howl at the moon? But they do howl throughout the cold winter nights when the moon is bright for courtship. I drew on that a lot there. I hope you enjoyed this chapter; it was super fun to write. Oh and all of those people who are reading and not reviewing common' join the party! Even bad reviews are welcome. And if you have any requests as to what you would like to see from the other 4 targets on Tyson's list throw it into a review, i may surprise you.**


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

**This chapter is a little do-dad for everyone who wanted to see Pigma die. Yes we all can agree that we hate Pigma; but my sweeties he died in Assault already. For the Assault portion of this story see Billie and the big bad Wolf. Thought i would fill this chapter with some easter eggs though. Enjoy it and keep brainstorming. **

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The next morning not all that long after the sun rose; but still enough time for it to be warm in the sky, the light streamed into the hotel room through a small crack in the curtains. Billie's eyes fluttered open at the sudden harshness of the light; she groggily picked her head up off of Wolf's shoulder and rubbed the crust out of her eyes.

"Aw crap…" she mumbled. For inside of her head all that remained were swirling tendrils of the color black; as if that was all she had dreamt about last night. But it hadn't been a dream: it was the absence of memory in real time. She cursed herself for not being able to hold it back. She remembered trying to hold it back, but Wolf had been so forceful… wait what had it done to Wolf? She suddenly wondered in concern. Was this going to make him worse?

She looked down at the lupine; breathing silently in his sleep. She put a hand to his face and saw the dark rings that were there before had diminished. She sighed a bit happier in the thought that perhaps she had given him some much needed rest last night. Then she looked down at the curve of muscles on his stomach: in space, the lighting was always dimmer than when you were on a planet especially in the Sargasso zone, they weren't exactly state of the art bulbs. And now in the harshness of a sun star; she could see every little detail, and she had never realized it before always believing it to be the curve of his muscles as she was running her fingers across them but Wolf bore quite a few battle scars.

"So many scars…" she said running her fingers over bumpy surfaces that were at one point either burns or gashes. This suddenly made her aware of her own sore body; she got up and turned around so her back was facing the mirror, she lifted up her tail and saw little pinpricks in her thighs. Then the memory came rushing back; Wolf had cut into her just a little bit with his claws. Not to mention her inner thighs felt as though they were bruised again; even her jaw felt sore. She stopped at that thought as another little flash of memory came back into her conscious mind: just a quick flash of her looking up his body to only be able to see his e-patch through the darkness. She shook her head to dismiss it, grabbed her backpack and headed into the bathroom.

She scrubbed last night off with the tiny soaps the hotel had given them and then pulled a fresh change of clothes out of her bag. With her wet hair tied up in a hotel towel she used another to dab her fur dry then pulled on some black jeans with red stitching and a grey turtleneck sweater over her black and white lace underwear. Maybe she would get a red bra today as well to replace the one Wolf shred in his teeth. She walked out into the room and gathered up her dirty clothes that had been scattered on the floor; and took the liberty of gathering Wolf's clothes and folding them neatly on the desk next to the TV stand for him to find when he awoke. Shoving her dirty clothes into her bag she pulled out Devin's old bone comb and worked it through her hair quickly; then with practiced fingers she quickly braided it up and tied it at the end as always. Tossed it around her neck and then decided to work the comb through her tail a few times.

Once she was satisfied she zipped everything up into her little black backpack, looking past the two blasters she had stuffed into it; just in case. She threw her red coat on and then her backpack over it, zipping the coat up she closed the gap in between the curtains so the room was dark. She found her way around by the glow of Wolf's e-patch cutting through the darkness; she bent over him and lightly kissed the top of his muzzle. Finally she secured her headgear to the right side of her head and grabbed the 'Do not disturb' sign; opened the door, hung it on the knob and took one look back in and heard Wolf's deep breathing. She was going to let him sleep while she went shopping: it was really something she knew he wouldn't enjoy, but it was needed for the job. She quietly closed the door and trotted down the hall. She nabbed a big chocolate muffin from the crappy continental breakfast they had down in the lobby and made her way out into the cold Fichina streets.

She wandered around the town, keeping her thoughts from racing by focusing on the job at hand; today was a simple set up, get something that would make her look like a high class hooker; then get back to the Fichina base with Wolf to set up. Eventually she stumbled into a large mall; she headed inside welcoming the heated building from the harsh winds outside, and then found herself in front of some little boutique. She lazily looked around at the racks, and occasionally dared a look over her shoulder, hoping no one would recognize her from Star Wolf.

"Dear diary… JACKPOT." She said as she spotted a little red number. She scooped it off of the rack and looked at the size; large.

"Bitchin'" Truth be told her frame was a medium; but having so much muscle tone from years of fighting, plus being half wolf; placed her on the larger side as far as most women's clothing ran. It was certainly something an escort would wear; bright red with a cut up the thigh on one side. Having nothing to cover the back at all; barley even covered the chest. Billie giggled and went to the counter to buy it.

"Billie?!" A sweet little voice called behind her as she walked out with her dress folded in a bag.

"Aw geez…" Billie said under her breath as Lucy Hare trotted up to her holding several bags.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Lucy said through a broad smile.

"Oh just… getting something slutty!" Billie said shaking around her bag.

"Oh… well you were certainly in the right place…" Lucy said looking at the Kit-Kat store she had just come out of; their trademark was some curvaceous black cat in a bikini that left nothing to the imagination.

"So, what are you doing here?" Billie said nervously.

"Oh I had the day off due to exams; so I came to meet a couple of friends of mine. Dang, I wish I had bumped into you sooner I would have introduced you to Fox and Krystal." She said smiling brightly.

"Oh yeah?" Billie said relieved she had missed them.

"They were here on a date. Well Krystal is from Sauria she was taking in Fichinian culture or something… They are such a cute couple." She beamed with an upbeat attitude that once again made Billie a bit envious of the optimist.

"Well, I need some slutty shoes to go with this so…" Billie started.

"Oh I know the perfect place!" Lucy said excitedly. Then before Billie could even argue Lucy hooked her arm around hers and ran her through the mall.

Lucy took Billie to several stores; gabbing the whole time about her favorite ones; eventually they made their way into a shoe store and they both picked out some kinky black heels that Lucy showed Billie how to walk in; she had always worn combat boots and was not so great with heels as she was finding out… She fell on her ass twice. But after Lucy held her shoulders and walked her through the motions she fell into the sexy catwalk groove that made many women jealous. They went to buy their purchases as well as a few other miscellaneous items; Billie made sure to pay for everything in cash, she could not risk being identified electronically. She had quite a cash wad saved from various bounties she had gotten. And she knew she would see all of the money she was spending again so long as she wrote it off as a business expense.

"So, how long have you known Fox?" Billie asked as they walked out of the mall trying to probe a bit.

"Oh forever… since we were kids." She giggled on fond memories.

"Yeah? Did you know his parents?" Billie asked meaning James specifically.

"Mhmm. His father and mine were best friends."

"Really?" Billie asked… "So you're Peppy's kid? Wonder why he wouldn't want his daughter to fly…" she said forgetting that Lucy was unaware of her age.

"Oh you know Peppy?"

"Uhm… I know of him." She said quickly not really lying… she had never been introduced to Peppy but James told her about him.

"Yeah… I'll never forget when my father told Fox about James dying… That was such a horrible day."

Billie stopped walking staring at the ground.

"How did he die?" She asked in a low voice. Lucy stopped too also looking down at the ground.

"My father wasn't completely sure… James sacrificed himself so he could get away. All we know for sure is that James was sold out by one of his own teammates…"

"What? WHO?!" Billie asked in an outrage. Wolf had left this little chestnut out in his rendition. Lucy looked up at her a little confused at her outrage.

"Uhm, his name was Pigma I think." She said putting a finger up to her chin in thought.

"Pigma…" Billie trailed off. "Pigma Dengar?" she said looking over at Lucy desperately awaiting an answer.

"Yes, I believe that was his name… Poor Fox, after he heard what had happened he didn't get angry, or cry… he just shut down. He wouldn't talk to any of us for weeks."

Billie wasn't hearing her… she was lost in a labyrinth of racing thoughts… she had told him; she had warned James a thousand times! Dengar didn't sit right with her; she had never met him but James had told her his love of the green. Never trust people who are in it just for the money! She had yelled it at him too… And now Billie was sure… if she had joined Star Fox: she could have done something to help James. Tears stung ant the backs of her eyes, but she shook it off.

"Where is Pigma now?" she said through clenched teeth.

"Oh he died sweetie." Lucy said looking at her suspiciously. "During the Aparoid invasion; Fox was just telling me about it earlier today. He was assimilated by them; Fox and his team had to kill him."

Billie exhaled a deep breath; she hadn't even realized she'd been holding her breath. She was relieved that he got to avenge his own father's death. She looked up at the sky wondering where James's spirit had landed after it had been separated from his body. She hoped it was somewhere pleasant. She closed her eyes listening to the breeze howl by; sighing a long sigh the, the wind cried for the loss of loved ones. But she was torn out of the thought by a chime from her headgear. She flipped the red lens out and was greeted by a gruff voice.

"Where are you?" Wolf said over his e-patch.

"I'm on my way back, meet me in the parking lot." She said and hung up on him.

"Sorry Lucy, looks like I gota bounce." Lucy nodded to her and Billie walked down the block; when she was out of Lucy's gaze she began to sprint for the hotel.

* * *

When Billie got to the hotels parking lot she slowed her pace catching her breath. Her boots crunched on the snow as she approached Wolf who was leaning on the cycle, his hands leisurely tucked into the pockets of his coat.

"You run all the way here?" he asked amused as she put her hands on her knees and sucked in air. Her breath moved around her face visible in the bitter cold, until she spoke finally scattering it farther.

"Who is Pigma?" she gasped standing straight up. Wolf didn't answer, but he did roll his eye and sit on the cycle.

"We don't have time to get into this now; let's head for the base." And he revved the engine to life. Billie didn't move, she just stood there and let her visible breath rise into the air. Wolf looked over at her not budging and giving him a glare he hadn't seen before, with those pretty black eyes he loved so much. He sighed heavily throwing his head back; his breath rose up as if he'd been smoking an e-cig and then he killed the engine.

"Why do you want to know all of a sudden?" He asked in a gruff voice leaning on the handlebars; but refusing to look at that glare she was throwing his way. All she saw was the e-patched side of his face.

"He was involved in James's death… and so were you. Who. Was. He?" she said the last three words through clenched teeth.

"What are you after?" He said wondering who she'd been speaking to.

"Speak." She said like she was giving orders to a dog.

"Before I tell you… I want you to wrap your head around a couple of things…" he said still not looking at her.

"First of all; he played a much bigger role in James's death than I did. And second…" He paused and finally looked at her; and much to Billie's surprise, for once he didn't have an enraged look in his good eye.

"Please remember; that even though people change, the past don't."

Billie bent her ears back and nodded.

"The day you first joined Star Wolf you asked why I was recruiting so heavily… Well I wasn't lyin' when I said I had to let some people go for economical differences." He said taking out an e-cig and leaning back on the large cycle seat. He took a drag as Billie soaked his words in.

"Yes, he was on my team… Yes we were in the Venom army together. And finally; he had a deal with Andross to haul James McCloud in: I had nothin' to do with that." He looked at her with desperate sincerity when he said that.

"Billie you know already at that point I was not McCloud's biggest fan; but what Pigma did? Backstabbing aint in my DNA…" he shook his head in disgust. There was nothing good about people who didn't honor the rules of engagement.

"Billie I never told anyone this… but I hated Andross: and I hated his stupid candy-ass nephew Andrew! The only reason I let him on Star Wolf was because his uncle was my employer at the time. That miserable swine just happened to be a package deal." He spat out to the wind and took another drag.

Billie believed every word, Wolf hadn't had an easy life but she still couldn't help but ask a question to which she already knew the answer.

"If you hated him; why did you join his army?"

"I needed money… and tryin' to make it the 'honest way' as a mercenary just… was harder back then, I was younger I was more naïve... and with the war going on; if you couldn't beat em' join em' I guess." He said in a low tone.

"Not to mention I was still piss drunk mad at McCloud… But when I saw what Andross did to him; I don't know it made me sick. Tarnished my feeling of revenge… So I carried the anger on to his son. As you already know. And don't ask cause I aint gonna tell you what Andross did; it will only upset you." He finished with a hostile tone. Even he didn't want to dwell on what had happened… when it had happened he couldn't even watch: he just didn't have the stomach for that kind of torture.

"Satisfied?" He asked with a shrug.

Billie walked up to him and snatched his e-cig and took a long drag.

"Life is a fickle bitch isn't she?" Billie asked through the smoke.

"You gota make her your bitch before she can make you hers." Wolf said without missing a beat. Billie nodded as if she was just shaking it off, then before he could react she dropped her bags and hugged him; pressing her face down to his warm chest. She didn't cry or sob, but her eyes watered a little bit and she shook as he placed his hands on her back.

"Aww, damnit Billie…" He sighed. "We gota keep movin'…" He said meaning more than one thing by that statement. She nodded and pulled herself together.

She popped the e-cig back into his mouth and picked up what she had dropped, strapped herself in behind Wolf hugging him close to keep the bags in between them from falling; and Wolf revved the engine to life and sped for the outskirts of the city.

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**REVIEW****... YOU ARE BEING BRAINWASHED, REVIEW... **


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

**HELLO MY DUCKIES! Good stuff in the reviews, and for the couple of you wondering; Billie has an American accent, a very general one. Wolf's accent in SSBB is American for example except specifically from Texas. (I thought that fit him soooo well! That's why i'm using the design from SSBB for this story.) But Billie's is more generalized like Fox... Falco sounds like he's from Brooklyn XD But anyways: I would also like to say... I had been saving this for the Command portion of this trilogy but i guess there's no harm in letting you know now. I hated Command, hated it. The game-play was fine; and i ever liked the idea of Fox pushing people away from him for selfish reasons like how he didn't want to loose Krystal. But the general story... (or stories i guess?) sucked ass. The entire thing just felt rushed... So my version of what goes on in Command will most likely differ greatly. I had this idea about zombies... but i don't know if that fits well either. So we'll see! Enjoy the read... and well... i'm not going to ask for reviews this time. You all know the drill.**

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As they rode off of the highway and into the snowy fields the wind felt harsher than it had last night. Billie was recomposed and all business once again; but did not look at the trail Wolf was taking back to base she kept her head pressed into his back to protect her from the wind. Then she felt a sudden dip and the wind as well as the other noises from outside fell away. She looked up and heard the engine die as they found themselves once again in that same garage. It was now lit up with the midday sun; the metal looked new and polished: it was new Billie realized as she looked out of the windows. They were still wrapped up in plastic like they had just been installed, Wolf's frame moved away from her and her arms slowly drooped down from where she had been holding onto him.

"Alright so you'll be here soon?" Wolf said, Billie hadn't realized that he had opened a chat with Panther from his e-patch as he'd gotten up.

She gathered up her bags and stood up, Wolf turned to face her finishing his conversation.

"Just move your ass and cut the crap… Wolf out." Billie snickered wondering what Panther had said. They stood in the light and looked at each other for a minute. Wolf didn't remember anything from last night; but when he had woken up with dry blood tipping his claws and Billie nowhere to be found it had shaken him a bit. He wanted to say something… to ask how much she remembered, but at the same time he didn't want to bring it up. Even though his body felt physically satisfied; the details of what he had actually done were a tad fuzzy… He remembered their howling little ride, and dinner…checking into the hotel? That's where things got fuzzy, when he had closed the hotel door and looked in at Billie staring out of the window… then just physical sensations and the swirling of the color black.

"I'll get working then shall I?" Billie said walking past him into the dim base. Wolf just nodded; she brushed by him and her scent surrounded his muzzle in a warm swoosh. He almost remembered her kissing the top of it… but had that happened?

Wolf followed behind her after thinking for a moment; the base was catching some of the light from the windows now and wasn't pitch black. He walked down the hall to the area that housed the flight deck and watched her opening up her cargo hold. As the two unloaded the crap she had brought down onto the deck they heard a Wolfen pulling in; looked up to see Panther's vessel landing on the side farthest from where they were standing.

"It's dark in here…" Panther said strolling towards them after he had gotten out.

"Thanks for stating the obvious; now help Billie get this crap into the equipment room." Wolf grumbled handing him a heavy box, Wolf had carried it like it was nothing but when it fell into Panther's arms he looked like it had been heavier than he expected. Then Wolf turned and walked away towards the garage.

"Well where is that?" Billie called after him.

"Just follow your feet." Wolf said not turning around or stopping, just pointing to the corridor opposite of the one that lead out to the garage.

"Great…" Billie said heaving up one of the generators.

"Well, Wolf did say this base would be much smaller as it only needs to house the four of us." Panther said strutting behind her.

* * *

They walked down the short hall into what looked like was set up to be a kitchen; and there was another hallway on the side opposite to the one they had just emerged from. They walked into it to see it fork of two hallways; it got a little brighter out of the hall that was attached to the left side. Billie looked down it to see one large window at the end of a hall of doors. Then she looked to the right; that side was carved in much larger: she immediately knew that was for fitting equipment down that way.

"This way." She said in an airy voice turning on her heel. Panther followed for a little ways until it opened up into a large dark room.

"Whoa!" She cried almost tripping over something.

"Oh, this ridiculous Panther has a better way." She heard a smooth voice call from behind. And then a beam of light came from one of his shoulders; Billie looked up to see a light flipped out of his suits shoulder pad.

"Gee yah think you could've done that sooner?" Billie said in a snarky tone looking down at the mess of thick cords she had nearly tripped over.

"Guess it just didn't occur to me." He said almost sounding cheeky, but that was just how his voice sounded most of the time.

"Yeah, well point it over there." She snapped setting her generator down giving her arms a rest. Panther aimed it at the wall and Billie made out a fuse box and a large indent that had been carved purposely into the rock to house the power source.

"Okay…" she sighed. "We are going to have to make a few more trips." She said looking over at the greenish glow that the cat's eyes were letting off from her angle.

* * *

Wolf was up in the garage looking out at the snow banks below him; he was waiting for Leon to pick up the chat signal he was sending from his patch; and for no particular reason started tearing the plastic off of the glass.

"You got me at a bad time." Came a shrill but calm voice from the other end.

"Finally; how are things going out there?" Wolf said staring out at the clear blue of the daytime sky and tossing a rolled up thin plastic sheet over his shoulder.

"Well, they certainly weren't exaderating this guys love of the highlife. All he's done since I got here is gamble and pick up floozies to parade on his arms like trophies." Leon said a little bored at his watching job.

"Good, Billie's plan should work then; as long as she can get him alone." Wolf said still not liking the idea of her turning on the charm for some other guy.

"I could have wasted this guy 1,000 times already Wolf. In 10,000 different ways! Let me just get him tonight while he sleeps."

"I know you could have killed him alone Leon; but you heard Tyson; he wants Billie to be present for each one…" Wolf said remembering the look Tyson had given her, he also remembered himself not liking it.

"Yeah, that's what's bugging me… All good assassins know that you should take the first opportunity that presents itself then disappear fast… I can understand him wanting to leave a calling card. But why have Billie present? He didn't even specify that she had to do it… I mean, do you even trust this guy? 600,000 for 5 targets isn't all that impressive."

"Trust Dexter Tyson? No I don't trust him as far as I can throw the huge bastard… But we need this. The Fichina base is almost livable. We just need one more push." Wolf said sticking to his guns.

"Okay… I'll keep you updated… Oh crap he's coming." Leon whispered.

"Where are you?" Wolf wondered hearing a weird echo.

"Only ask questions you want answers to…" Leon hissed then hung up.

Wolf thought on where he may have been for a moment; then realized Leon was right and quickly walked back down through the base leaving the thought behind him.

* * *

"Damnit hold the light steady." He heard Billie's voice echo down the hallway.

Wolf smirked in the dark a little bit as he saw Billie bent down next to the two generators and Panther standing by the fuse box pointing his light down on her. Her rear end was pointing up into the air and her tail was wagging in what Wolf guessed was aggravation as she was cursing up a storm that would make a sailor blush.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Panther said looking a little frightened.

"Yes damnit!" she yelled shooting up and tossing her wrench at him. He caught it with cat-like reflexes and she grabbed some large pliers and some electrical tape and bent back down.

"Damnit, light Panther!"

"Sorry." He said quickly, he had turned to watch Wolf approach them. They both smiled at each other as Billie went on yelling profanities; and several big MF words. After several minutes she shot her hand up behind her.

"Okay I'm going to need some wire caps…" She said flexing her fingers around.

Wolf picked up a plastic container of twistable wire caps and handed it to her.

"Thank you…" she said then started grumbling. "Okay, you outdated piece of…" Then her hand came back up.

"Need a small wrench…" She said waving her hand around in the empty air. "Hello anyone there? WRENCH!" she barked impatiently as Wolf looked around; then he shot Panther a 'what the hell?' kind of look and snatched the wrench from him.

"THANK YOU." She shot in a snarky voice then they listened to her continue to bitch. "Okay, so that pipe will travel up the fuse box… Son of a-" Then they both heard a clang.

"Nailed it!" she said happily. Then she pulled herself up and turned to them. "OKAY! Ready for action." She said through a grin.

"What was giving you so much trouble?" Wolf asked looking down at the two clear hearted generators shoved in next to one another.

"I don't know what melon heads you got to put in that fuse box, but I had to drill a pipe through the rock just to create a path for the wires! Then I had to route all of them to the different fuses; and boy I really hope that ballast holds…" She said rolling up her sleeves.

"And now for the hard part." She smiled up to him.

They both watched in awe-inspiring silence as she carefully crouched down on the balls of her feet and delicately wrapped her palms and fingers around the two glass oval shapes. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath; as if she were centering herself to meditate… and then the black emerged from the growing stripes on her hands. It hissed and swirled around, almost starting to light up in the confined space of the glass; Wolf stared on at it, and as he watched it swirl and turn in the glass he felt something in his mind… he could not place it, whether or not it was a feeling or an actual physical sensation; but he dropped his jaw and everything started to fade into the color black.

He looked around at the dark void he was suddenly alone in, the pitch black surrounded him and made him feel warm… the same physical pleasure he got from holding onto Billie. He smiled and closed his eyes letting it wrap around him. Then he felt something; a tapping on the back of his head. It felt like a clawed finger, each tap got more and more aggressive, until they started to physically hurt. Wolf shook his head around not wanting to open his eyes… not wanting the warm shadow lace to flee from his sight like when you suddenly walk into a light room from a dark one and can't see for a second. But the annoyance finally became too much to bear and he shot his eyes open. He was standing right where he had been with Billie and Panther. He put a hand on the back of his head and looked behind him: darkness there, and nothing more. Then he turned back around and looked at Billie on all fours panting a little bit.

"Are you okay?" Panther asked looking at the stripes fade from her hands.

"Yeah… they just needed a lot of juice." She said and looked at the glass hearts; the shadow lace swirled around inside and continuously recycled itself in a never ending strain of energy just as she had designed the cores to do.

'They really did look like little heartbeats' Wolf thought; then Billie put the covers back onto the generator frames covering them from sight.

"Okay… Billie breathed out stepping beside Panther in front of the fuse box. She began snapping fuses on and twisted a knob off to the side.

"And then… there was… light!" She said and all of the lights in the base flashed to life; then all shut off except the ones in the room they were standing in.

"Ah, much better." Panther applauded shutting off his shoulder light.

"Good job Billie." Wolf said shrugging off the little incident he's just phased out of.

"Yeah… you know I gota level with you I wasn't sure that would work." She chuckled rubbing the back of her head embarrassedly.

"Well let's have a look at your handy work." Wolf said and the three turned down the hallway as Billie and Panther followed.

"Nice…" Panther chimed like velvet as the lights lit up in front of them illuminating the metalwork before them; then closed over areas they left behind. Billie nodded in agreement, it was very good work for having been done so fast: ah the scum of the smuggler's rock never failed to impress. When they arrived in the kitchen area the whole place lit up; the stone floors looked as though they had been scored to prevent slipping if the surface was ever wet with snow that was drug in. The counters on either side of the room were fresh polished metal; it matched the same pattern on all of the ceilings that held the motion lights. There was a small island carved into the center of the room with a metal tabletop; and four bar stools stacked neatly on top of it.

As Wolf started to take them down and place them around the island Billie found herself impressed once again; there was a stainless steel sink with bare pipes next to a mini fridge. She walked up to it and twisted the knob… nothing.

"We have to bring in an outside source of water and toss it into the reverse osmosis filter in the hallway closet…" Wolf said.

"Reverse osmosis?" Panther asked taking a seat on a stool.

"It's a way of purifying water so it's safe for consumption. It was thrown in at no extra charge because I only had them throw in one bathroom." Wolf said a little proud of his negotiation skills.

"You got ripped off; where are we supposed to get water?" Panther asked.

"Just melt some snow…" Billie mumbled looking at the fridge. Her stomach was growling having already digested that muffin she ate earlier.

"Clever." Wolf said over to Billie's back.

"Yes speaking of things safe for consumption; have either of you eaten today?" Panther asked, he hadn't grabbed anything before he had left Sargasso. And Wolf hadn't eaten anything, although he didn't really notice.

"Yes Wolf we crave sustenance…" Billie whined opening the fridge up… nothing once again.

Wolf rolled his eyes and opened up the bottom of a counter; he tossed a tube at each of them and took one for himself. Billie grimaced at the nutrient paste that pilots only ate when they were short on time, or money.

"Guess it will have to do…" Panther said losing his battle to hunger and tearing his open with his teeth. Wolf opened his in that way as well. Billie looked back down at her tube and reluctantly did the same.

"When you're done get yourselves ready for New Lullix and get to the flight deck." Wolf said walking out of the room.

"So… how has he been acting?" Panther asked when Wolf was out of earshot. She let out a big sigh and sat in the stool next to his.

"Panther… I know you are a womanizer but…"

"As you said I believe it was 'the blight on your gender'" He chuckled.

"Hehe… yeah well right now you are the closest I have to girl talk. Last night when I arrived…" Billie went on to speak to him of the howling, the great fun they had in the windy snow… and the little bit she remembered; but it still implied Wolf perhaps recalled less.

"Doesn't sound like he's gotten worse…" Panther concluded. "He was still focused on the job." Panther said in a reassuring tone.

"You think he's getting better?" Billie asked crumpling up her tube.

"You know something… I am a womanizer… but I admit to it. Wolf, he has never… well in the brief time I've known him been one to talk of women in any context really. I can honestly say the man has never had a serious relationship before in his life. He is always focused on the next mission, I was beginning to labor under the conclusion that perhaps he was playing for the other team. But I digress; maybe this is his strange way of trying to adjust to new feelings coursing through him; associating it with something he is familiar with, like fighting."

"So… should I stay? With him I mean; or should I let him go for his own safety..?" Billie said not knowing if she was doing harm to the poor man. She felt like she was; but dear God help her she was too in love to let him go anyways. She put her head in her hands not knowing what to do.

"Oh, Panther I'm so scared… I know something bad is going to happen, but I don't know what damnit! This is so frustrating." Panther just replied by putting a hand on her shoulder. Billie looked up at the handsome black cat with the white slit running over his face.

"Was it worth it?" She asked in a small voice.

"What?" He asked not understanding the question.

"The gazelle… was it worth it? Was **she** worth that much to you? Getting expelled, disowned… never even being able to see her again? Was it worth it?" Billie pleaded hoping he had some honest feeling toward that girl from so long ago.

"Was she worth it…" He said looking forward into space with the blank stare that was trademark to felines. Then he closed his eyes thinking back on those days.

"She was worth every goddamned second…" He said in a stern way that for the first time made his voice loose that charming silk quality.

Billie felt a strange sense of peace take over her body and her racing mind; and let out a beautiful genuine smile.

"Okay… Let's go kill this bird!" She said getting up excitedly.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Three ships flew on through space bound for Corneria; Wolf, Panther and Billie occupying them as Fichina shrunk away into the distance.

"It was late afternoon when we left Fichina; so it should be early evening when we arrive in New Lullix." Billie said checking time differentials on her baby's monitor; she had built it into her dashboard about 19 years ago when she really started to have to live in her ship for the first time. She typed away on the light projected keyboard studying up on the target. The contract for Martin looked simple enough so long as everything went smoothly. She looked over the avian's picture and cringed a little bit… he was 49 but looked more or less like 69; it was obvious the man didn't take care of himself too well other than the fact he had expensive taste in clothes. She shut her monitor down not wanting to think about it anymore.

"They can't all be fun contracts…" Wolf said with a blank stare at Billie's face over chat.

"Yeah well, I want it put on record: I am never posing as a whore again…" she said rubbing her temples.

"That's fair." Wolf chuckled a bit as he spoke.

"Yes well, Panther is going to rest while he can…" the feline said with a yawn and closed chat. He then proceeded to put his ship onto auto pilot bound for Corneria before he laid back in his seat to sleep.

"Billie… do you trust Tyson?" Wolf asked bluntly.

"Nope." She said without hesitation. "I don't even think we should be doing these jobs."

"Then why are you putting yourself through it?"

"Because you need me to." She said leaning back and throwing her baby on auto pilot.

"You're doing this because I said to?" Wolf asked already knowing the answer.

"You are my boss." She said in a snarky tone. "Look I'm gonna take a hint from Panther okay?"

"Billie one more question." Wolf said right before she cut off her chat line. She looked at him with glassy eyes. "What exactly did you do to make Dexter hate you so much?"

"Well I made his profits shrink quite a bit." She snickered.

"There has to be more to it." He said shaking his head.

Billie let loose a long sigh. "You remember Taylor right?"

Wolf winced remembering the blow he had taken to the side of the head that day in jail on Taylor's signal.

"He's Tyson's son…"She said in a flat tone. Wolf's eyes grew wide.

"Tyson was training him to take over the family business after he passed away. But he was kind of a screw up… he was doing his first on the field job to demonstrate to daddy that he could do it: I showed up to claim the bounty on his head, used my shadow lace to take out his entire squad like they were a bunch of ammeters. Taylor became fascinated by it, by me I guess. And decided to start up a prison called The Cage specifically for holding scum from his father's crime ring… and of course he went out of his way to get criminals that had been captured by me in there… don't ask why because I do not know." She said the last sentence quickly, in an effort to dismiss the subject.

Wolf put a palm to his face in thought; how could he have not seen it before… He was a brown lynx with a reddish tinge and thick black stripes that were more trademark to a tiger than a lynx. And he was freakishly tall; now that Wolf thought back on it he even had the same cold stare that Dexter had on all of the time.

"Son of bitch Billie! Why didn't you tell me?!" He snapped at her in frustration. Billie looked down and shrugged: like a child being scolded for lying.

Wolf let out a growl under his breath and thought back on the day he had met Taylor…

"She saved my life once." He had said rubbing his fingers across that large scar on his neck.

Wolf looked at Billie's crestfallen face on the chat line… he hated that look; it did not suit her. She was sarcastic and brooding, cursed a lot and became enraged easily just like him.

"Billie get some sleep, you're going to need to be rested to be on your toes." He said in that plush tone he only used on her, and only when they were alone. Billie nodded and closed her chat line down.

While Billie and Panther slept; Wolf stayed awake, unable to sleep once again as his thoughts jabbed at him.

* * *

Billie tangled in sleep looked out at a vast desert, her braid was extremely tight across the back of her head and it only reached the top of her shoulder blades as it hung down. The sun was setting to her back, and across an orangey sky she hummed out her broken lullaby; the only thing she had left of her family; after all she didn't even remember her own name.

She looked over at her ship; it was a slate grey and other colors from the scrap it was made of having yet to be painted.

"Why must I leave?" She asked a shadowy figure who was sorting through a pile of wires with metal fingers. The figure spoke in a raspy voice; raspy either with age or from his metal bottom jaw:

"You can't stay here forever you know, surrounded by this junk. You were made to walk in greater worlds; designed for better things dear."

"Devin…" Billie protested. "Have you ever thought that perhaps you ask too much; that you expect too much of me? Has the idea ever come into your metal brain that I don't wish to go: t-to leave you here?"

"Too err is mortal…" he said looking over to her with his tired brown eyes.

"And I am not…" she echoed like she had said it thousands of times before.

"You are still young my sweet, but you shall see… Time will prove me right." He sputtered near the end then went into a coughing fit.

Billie shot her eyes open and the coughing was replaced by a distinct electronic beep; she looked to her baby's dash and saw the little green light blinking indicating that she had arrived in Corneria's orbit.

"Everyone ready to break atmosphere?" she opened her chat line still feeling groggy.

"Follow my lead." Wolf said to them both. Panther just yawned over the line.

When they could feel the planets gravity pulling them close to Corneria's crust they made a long turn through the stratosphere. Wolf looked out at Corneria city; it covered a large enough portion of the planet to be seen from space very well. It was the early evening and the shadow being cast over the sphere was just touching over the end of New Lullix now. Wolf looked over at where there would usually be twinkling lights of white and yellow, but into what now felt like below him due to the angle, Corneria city was still being rebuild from the horrible Aparoid disaster. It made Wolf think of how little he knew of Billie back on that day… and how much he knew now. After being thrown for a spin finding out that Taylor was Dexter's son he wondered if he would ever look back on this moment and realize how little he knew of Billie now.

They straightened out their noses as the fires from the atmosphere began to blaze at their hulls. An entry into the atmosphere had to be perfectly straight, or the results could be bloody and fatal. If you developed a curve in your form for even one second it could become damn near impossible to straighten your nose back out again under the immense pressure, and that could lead to a free spinning crash landing. So each time a pilot went into a planet it took a concentration that had to be unbreakable.

"There it is." Panther's smooth voice came in clear as a bell once the pressure subsided and the blazes surrounding them died.

"Wow… they added new buildings, do you see?" Billie said having remembered the New Lullix she had seen 20 or 30 years ago.

And they did see; standing out alone amongst the terraformed surface of the planet was a clearly man-made group of structures that stood in an almost capsule-like city limit: this limit had been expanded since the last time any of them were here. Now it almost seemed a shielding, like some great wall that was only accessible via ship; and the tall intimidating structures that looked down over nature in a sort of morbid triumph were dolled up with all of the bells and whistles to make them appear friendly… Billie couldn't help but compare it to government as they slowly made their way into a closer view. The city of New Lullix was surely something to behold from a distance, so many skyscrapers and shining neon lights one might mistake the place as an intelligent hub of modern technology where the greatest minds might meet to mingle, and discuss their own advancements… but the truth was much less impressive. The city although dependent on modern technology to keep running was actually armed to teeth with low lives, whores and a great many broken dreams that lined the streets of those who had come and developed gambling problems.

But they were not here to take in the nightlife; the glitz and glamour that acted as the smoke and mirrors for the great act that covered up the sleaze that the people of Corneria city had forced out: out to find its own place to spread like a vile cancer, killing its victims softly and slowly. No, they were here to work. They pulled into a crowded lot full of ships off to one side, and walked through the area that held the cars of the guests who were staying in this casino resort. Billie grabbed a duffel bag out from under her seat that she had packed earlier and slung it over her shoulder.

"This place is nice…" Panther said taking in the quality as they made their way through the front. It had been quite a while since Star Wolf had the five star treatment.

"How can we afford this place?" Billie said admiring the tall fountain in the lobby. It was a group of dice clustered together in a stack; the water was dribbling out from the circles on each side of the dice in a relaxing way. She saw it vanish behind two gold and marble doors as the elevator closed.

"Leon's writing it off as a cost of doing business." Wolf said as the three mercenaries stood there in the ditzy elevator music.

"Great minds think alike…" she chuckled to herself, thinking back on when she had gone through the mall with Lucy writing it all off as costs of doing business.

The elevator stopped on the eleventh floor and Wolf walked out studying the numbers on each door in beautiful gold script. Billie and Panther followed him down the hallway until he stopped somewhere in the middle. The casino hotel they were in had a round shape to it; and all of the floors after the third floor held guest rooms, the hallways of which went all the way around in a circle until looping back to where the elevator doors were.

"805…" Wolf said aloud, and then proceeded to knock his large fist on the door three times. Not two seconds later did the door open revealing the face of a green chameleon to them.

"Miss me?" Leon said. Wolf just smirked and brushed past him into the room.

"Hey Leon, how did it go?" Billie said following Panther in.

"Quite well; luckily for us this Martin seems to be an avian of habit… always a bad idea when you have enemies in high places." Leon said in a cold voice then closed the door making use of every lock.

"I want a full report, now." Wolf said looking around the room. It was a single suite with a queen size bed off to the right, and an enormous flat screen that was framed elegantly on the wall like a painting opposite the bed. An intricate wooden carving crossed the back of the room like a sort of wall; Wolf walked past it and saw the second half of the room which held a couch a table and five chairs placed around it.

Leon had a black bag placed on the center of the table; gear for the mission. And all the way at the end of the room was a sliding glass door that lead out to a balcony. Wolf had purposely planned for them to have a room on the outside of the hotels ring shape. About 20 floors up directly above them was the penthouse their target was living in.

"Ohh… these are fine silk." Panther said sitting on the foot of the bed and letting his hands rub all up and down the sheets.

"How nice for you to have been able to sleep on them Leon; Panther is jealous."

"I haven't slept on them." He said walking past the floral wooden carving to where Wolf was.

"I don't think he's slept… at all" Billie said knowing he had probably been tailing the target the entire time. Then she tossed her bag down on the bed next to Panther and followed Leon. Panther shrugged and they all gathered around the table.

They all sat around the table except for Wolf who stood over it leaning on it with his palms, looking down at the pocket projector Leon had brought. On the projector displayed in the air in the 3D for all to view were blueprints of the hotel. Leon began to give them his briefing:

"The target has made up permanent residence here." He pointed a thin finger at the top; to the largest penthouse suite, the projector then zoomed in for them sensing the motion.

"He sleeps in, in this room every day until about 1:00. Then like clockwork he comes downstairs and gets in his private limo to leave. I tracked his movement via the mapping tech in my headgear, and every day he goes to several banks, then some retail stores, then some kind of overpriced restaurant. By the time the sun is setting he makes his way back to this hotel. Now Billie this is where you come in." Leon said bringing the hollow projector up to the bar near the lobby.

"In this bar; prostitutes usually gather to display themselves to clients who are getting ready to enter the casino portion of the building. That is where you will wait for him." Billie nodded as Leon checked the time.

"You have about an hour before he makes his rounds down to the bar. You have to get him interested enough in you that he will keep you on his shoulder the entire evening."

"I can handle that… What does he do then?" She said as Wolf sort of cringed.

"Now once he has his chosen prostitutes, or in this case one; you need to get him alone… he will spend the rest of the night pissing away all of the money at the tables and getting wasted. We don't want to hang around all night Billie, so you are going to have to make it seem worth his while if he takes you up to his suite."

Billie nodded.

"Then, well, the rest is simple."

"Strangle him with money, got it." Billie said then paused. "Where am I going to-"

Leon cut her off by sliding a fat stack of cash across the table.

"What I just take this with?" She said like it was some kind of joke.

"No…" Leon said. "I broke into his room several times while he was out… He keeps quite a reserve of money just lying about."

"Talk about tacky…" Panther said eyeing the stack.

"Okay, I know exactly what to do." Billie said with a nod and stood fully up. "But what are you guys going to be doing?"

"Well, I'm going to be in position somewhere near you; so is Panther, and Wolf will be right here with a direct feed to your earpiece and camera necklace."

"What?" Wolf protested. "I thought Panther was doin' that."

"You are too close to this one Wolf." Leon said realistically. "It's better if you keep your distance or you will blow Billie's cover."

"He's right…" Billie said to Wolf who looked at her in a silent rage. "Wolf you're not a subtle man…" She smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

"We usually don't got time for subtle." Wolf gruffed.

"Yes but this time; subtle is the name of the game." She said simply and walked back to the bed and grabbed her bag.

"Just need 20 minutes." She chimed then disappeared into the bathroom.

Wolf sighed through his teeth, then slid open the balcony door for some fresh air.

Panther and Leon looked to one another.

"I'm going to see if they play anything good on TV here…" Panther said and made his way to the bed. Leon turned and went to join his boss on the balcony.

"You said you could handle it." Leon said out in the open air.

Wolf leaned on his forearms over the balcony bar and took a drag from an e-cig. He looked out at the glistening neon lights of all the bustling streets below them; shining out in the darkness.

"You said this was okay." Leon persisted.

"I'm fine Leon." Wolf said through a cloud of vapor.

"Just because you are sleeping with her doesn't mean you have to go soft and treat her like a child. She was a damn good leader when we busted you out of that metal van just out of Corneria city-"

"I know damnit!" Wolf spat. "I'm not trying to treat her like a child… But…" he just sighed… Leon wasn't really great with pep talks.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Leon said joining Wolf in his leaning out over the twinkle of the skyline. "When we spoke on Fichina everything seemed fine."

"Leon, I know she 97; and she has a lot of history… but do you remember that Taylor guy?" Wolf gruffed then took a puff.

"Ah, I took his arm as sort of a mental trophy. That was such a fun day!" Leon exclaimed.

"He's Tyson's son." Wolf said quickly. Leon widened his large glassy eyes.

"Billie knew that…" Wolf said at a slower pace.

"And she still agreed to these jobs?" Leon asked impressed.

"Leon you heard the way Tyson spoke to her; like she was his property all of a sudden… What if I'm walking her right into a trap?"

"Well of course it's a trap." Leon said like it was obvious. "But she got along doing more dangerous work than this for 97 years before you came into her life…"

Wolf looked over at his teammate.

"Stop treating her like she's made of glass… These Shadow Legion seem like they are made of sterner stuff than us mere mortals." Leon assured his boss.

Wolf smirked out a cloud of vapor… "Leon is this a bonding moment?" He joked to his reptilian comrade.

"Plus, I can't wait to watch the life leave that bird's eyes!" Leon laughed hysterically thinking about the rush he was going to get.

"And now it's over…" Wolf said rolling his eyes and bending his ears back.

Leon laughed hysterically into the night sky and Wolf just went back to looking annoyed.

* * *

**Man this one took some patience... i was sleepy today. And for those of you that like to re-read stories; yesterday i went back through Doc Manager and i updated every single chapter of Billie and the Big Bad Wolf! There are literally no typos now! So hey if you need a refresher... anyways next chapter will probably be longer than this one full of action. Let me know what you think so far in the reveiws. And you'd better reveiw this time i only got one review last chapter and I miss my rieviews! Hope you enjoyed this one my Duckies.**


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Billie was busy blow drying her hair and fur in the bathroom; she stood naked in front of the mirror as her long black locks whipped with the heat from the dryer in front of her face. It had been a very long time since she wore her hair in any other way than her trade-mark braid scarf, but she could not afford to look like herself: not tonight. With that thought she brushed her hair back out of her face and dug her hand around in her black bag; it came back up with a round container of temporary fur dye.

It was basically just makeup that could dry into one's fur and then be shampooed out later when a person wished for a different look. She had gotten a pure white color that matched her own quite well; scooping a large glob out on her fingers she smeared it into the brown and black blazes on her muzzle and her chest, even on the small hints of brown that covered her eyelids and the tufts of her ears. Until she looked like a completely white wolf; it looked good on her and made her large black eyes stand out even farther. With a little smirk at herself in the mirror she shoved all of her normal clothes into the bag then zipped it up and began to style her hair.

Wolf, Panther and Leon were all just sitting around the room in an awkward silence flipping through the television channels for no real reason. Panther let out a purr when he found a program that described services around the hotel, it was being hosted by a grey cat with a very large fake rack, and decided to settle on it.

"Seriously? Is that all you ever think about fish breath?" Leon said a little bored setting up Billie's camera choker with the mini hollow projector so that Wolf could listen to, and watch Billie work.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response…" Panther said quickly, not diverting his attention from the screen.

Wolf was hanging off the edge of the bed and listening to the noises coming out of the bathroom, his arms were crossed and when everything fell silent in the room his large index finger began to tap his arm with anticipation. They all turned their heads when they heard the door open; and the smell of flowered soaps from her shower filled the room, Panther dropped the remote with a small muffled thud to the carpeted floor as Billie stepped out into view and tossed her bag into the corner.

Wolf and Panther both stood up and their jaws dropped; Billie stood in front of them in a flowing red dress that made a clean cut up her left hip revealing a toned leg in a four inch black velvet mary-jane heel. In the natural curve of her center the dress hugged her tightly in the exact right way, and then rose up in two elegant strips that went over her chest covering only what needed to be covered by law, and then tied around the back of her neck. The top layers of her hair were swirled around to the back of her head in a lovely pair of braids; they met in the center and fell down loose with the rest of her hair that was tied just near the small of her back so it wouldn't fly around everywhere.

"So, how do I look?" she said holding her arms out and slowly turning around 360 degrees.

Wolf and Panther both felt their temperatures rise when they saw her back; the dress didn't cover anything, it was tucked just under her tail covering her rear end; but the rest of her back, aside from her flowing hair was completely bare. She turned back to face them, and stared a little confused with her black eyes; she had thrown on a bit of black eye shadow and made an elegant black curve underneath her eyes with some liner. She stood there for a moment a bit confused, and then she sort of giggled a bit under her breath.

"Yeah, you look the part, now come here." Leon said in his usual tone as Wolf and Panther seemed to not even hear her question.

She brushed past the two of them over to Leon as their eyes followed her; when Wolf caught a glimpse of the stupid look on Panther's face he took his hand and slapped it hard to the back of the cat's head.

"Okay, this contains the camera; Wolf will only have visual of what you are facing directly." Leon said handing her a black choker with a red gem in the middle that contained the hidden camera lens. She went to put it on, but then a pair of clawed hands covered her own.

"Let me." Wolf said, she handed it to him and held her hair up as he clipped it on to her. Wolf looked down at her bare back and gave her shoulder blade a little nibble.

"Hey, save it." Leon said in an annoyed voice. "Visual looks good…" He trailed off looking at the projector giving a good visual of himself as she faced him.

"Sound is good too… now hide this well." He said giving her a small earpiece. She tucked it into the tuffs of her ear down near her black hair, it was invisible there.

"Okay me and Panther are going to get moving into position." Leon said looking over at the cat that had just come out of the bathroom sporting a black suit with a red tie; the tie had rose patterns subtly in the stitching; it looked like silk. He straitened it out in the mirror; nodded to Wolf who nodded back, then he grabbed the bag that Billie had brought and the one he had brought and made his way out of the room.

"You guys sit tight until the signal okay?" Leon said strapping on some guns and going out of the balcony door; they saw him strap on some sort of harness then start scaling the wall upwards.

"Whew; can't wait until this guy is dead and we can leave…" Billie said lifting her leg out from the cut in her dress and strapping her large curved knife to her inner thigh; it was on the inside so from the outside it just looked like a garter.

"What?" She said looking over at Wolf who was staring at her again. His tail was slowly swishing through the air behind him, and his smirk was growing.

"Wolf focus." She said jokingly and sat on the bed.

"Yeah, yeah…" He trailed off disappointed then sat at the table, looking at himself on the projector.

* * *

Panther had just emerged from the ship lot where he had stashed the bags of their things into his own cargo bay. He strutted in his suit looking like a high roller and made his way to the front of the casino. He stopped by the car loop where people would go to valet park, and pretending to straighten out his cuffs kept an eye on the cars coming in. His attention was diverted for only a moment as a pair of cute canines walked by; they looked back at him as they walked away and he shot them a bedroom gaze with those yellow orbs and they giggled, and then entered the casino.

He turned back and saw a cluster of limo's driving up.

"Billie; be a dear and take position." He said into one of his cuffs.

"Alrighty then." Billie said to Panther through the little bracelet that matched her choker. Then she got up and strolled out of the door. Wolf watched her tail swinging behind the perfect shape of her hips until the door closed behind her.

He touched his fingers to his e-patch so they all could hear him: "Okay, it's show time."

Panther saw the avian they had been waiting for emerge from his vehicle and make his way into the casino. Careful as an assassin he tailed him into the lobby with the fountain of dice. With just a quick glimpse of his eye he saw Billie emerge from the elevator and confidently stroll past him; she caught the attention of several rollers and bell-boys in the lobby, but stared right through them all like they didn't exist.

"He should be in the bar at this very moment." Panther said smoothly to Billie's earpiece as she walked on through.

"I see him…" Wolf said at the same time Billie spotted him and faced him.

As Billie put on her game face and made a sexy stride towards her target she took in his details. He stood at the bar in a very expensive green suit that he was not pulling off, waiting for some drink he had ordered and looking around at the what the ladies of the night had to offer him this evening with greedy eyes. And it's a good thing he had money because he was not in shape; his feathers bulged out clearly hiding the weight from his over consumption of high priced food and too much booze. His beak instead of being a sleek black like one might expect from a raven, was dimmed and scratched; with the fatigue of early aging. Billie spotted a crack in it; from Dexter she guessed, before he could narrowly get away.

There was a live jazz band in this bar; intricate floral carvings like the one in the room were along all of the walls and lined the bottom of the stage where the band let out some sexy, slow tune. In the dim light of the glass lamps along the ceiling that claimed a marvelous design, the wooden florals almost seemed to pop out into life; and it was in this light where Martin looked into Billie's direction; his eyes stopped moving like he had been shot. Her black eyes pierced right into his tired listless eyes, and he stood taking in the white of the gorgeous creature pressed against the darkness and motion in the rest of the room. To Martin her presence was very dynamic, and all of the noise and vision from everything else seemed to pale in comparison and become irrelevant to his brain; and therefore did not exist. She strolled up and took the barstool next to his, as she sat down she shot him a flirty wink.

"What is your name? …or should I simply call you a goddess?" He said in a gritty voice, staring straight down at her chest. That was not missed on Wolf who could tell what he was looking at; and he found it really bothering him.

"Carrie-Anne…" Billie said in a giggly voice trying to think of a good hooker name; but only coming up with the name of a song she liked. She rested one of her legs on top of the other and stroked his thigh with her foot; trying to get him started so he would take her to the suite.

"Here you go sir." Said the avian bar keep that set down a tall drink with a few cuts of fruit on the straw. Billie looked down at it; she was still hungry only living on the paste they had been given at the base on Fichina.

"Would you like one?" Martin said putting a hand on her bare thigh and rubbing. That made Billie's skin crawl; and when she looked down to it, giving Wolf visual he felt his blood start to boil.

"No, no I never drink when I'm working. I find I can be more **active**… when sober" She said in a smooth voice; hiding her disgust. Then she leaned over, propping her breasts on the bar making them seem larger and lightly used her tongue to take a piece of the fruit.

"Is that right?" Martin said just a bit too loud. "How much do you charge?" He looked over her body already fantasizing about what he was going to do to her.

"You couldn't afford it…" She said with a sexy glare towards him then licked her teeth slowly.

"Nice one…" Panther said into her earpiece. She batted her eye over to the other side of the bar and saw him chatting up some cute thing, keeping a close eye on her.

"Oh yes I could! I happen to live in the penthouse…" He said proudly. And started to sip at his drink.

"Billie, get him up to the penthouse." Wolf snarled impatiently wanting to kill this guy himself.

"Does it have a good view of the skyline?" she said ignoring the annoying voices in her ear. Martin closed his eyes and proudly nodded still sipping his drink.

"You know what turns me on… Sex against a window; getting plowed really hard against the cold glass." She said in a stern way.

Martin nearly choked on his drink. Billie heard Panther laughing in her ear; but couldn't tell if it was what just happened or that little floozy he was chatting up. So she ignored it and ran her hand up Martin's arm.

"What turns you on?" She whispered at him. He stared at her with those dull eyes and the sweat growing under his feathers.

"I will give you 100,000 Credits to stay all night." He said to her in a shaky voice.

Billie got up and rubbed her body up on his. "Deal sweetie…" She whispered right into his ear.

"Easy Billie…" Wolf growled feeling angrier. With Wolf's words she let back a little.

Panther watched from the bar as they left: "Excuse me dear." He said to the pretty mink he had been chatting up and tailed them back out to the lobby. He watched the elevator close over them then spoke into his cuff:

"Leon, get into position."

In the elevator Martin was all hands; Billie was taller than him and Wolf could look down at him from her choker and when he saw Martin trying to take a peek at the merchandise under the dress he got up and clenched his fists.

"I don't do business in elevators…" Billie's voice called out. The sleazy little raven pulled himself off of her.

"When will they invent an elevator that understands urgency…" He said through a disturbing smile.

Wolf looked at the creepy little man ogling Billie and sent his fist into the dry wall to take out some rage. 'Keep it together' he thought to himself to calm down. 'Billie's not likin' this either.'

That she wasn't; she was relieved when they arrived on the penthouse floor; Wolf watched them step off the elevator.

"Alright guys they are in." He said.

"Finally…" He heard Panther say; the feline was in the process of finding his way into the maintenance room in the hotels basement.

"Shit…" He said under his breath and hid behind a support grate as a guard with a flashlight waltzed slowly by. The large porcupine shined the light in a couple of directions, and then kept on walking.

* * *

"I have visual…" Leon said very quietly from his hiding place. He watched Billie and Martin beneath him moving deeper into the penthouse suite.

"What's with all of the guards?" Billie asked already knowing the answer.

"Can't be too careful." Martin said as he led her through a lovely fore to another elevator at the end of the room.

"This is my private elevator; it leads right up to the penthouse." He said like he was king of the world as they stepped in.

"Wait for my signal Panther." Wolf said looking on at the screen. "Billie; when you get in there give me a full visual." He said to Billie who could not answer near Martin.

Leon looked down from his place in the vent and slowly moved forward to the grate; where he crouched silently, waiting for the signal.

Billie and Martin emerged into the penthouse to be greeted by two more guards.

"Leave us." Martin crowed to them; and without hesitation they went into the still open elevator to join the guards below.

Billie slowly walked through the massive and luxurious room. The same floral carvings that were all throughout the hotel where here separating the living room area from the kitchen on her right; and she looked out of the large window at the skyline, making sure her choker was facing every direction.

"So there is your window…" Martin said as he came up behind her and squeezed her breasts. She did her best to ignore it; his small feathered hands wanted to make her squirm and writhe, she closed her eyes and tried to pretend they were Wolf's hands. That seemed to help her keep composure.

"And my pay…" She said cold as ice.

"Ah yes of course! How could I forget that…" He said annoyed at that.

Billie followed him into the bedroom; keeping her composure as stony as possible.

"Holy shit…" Wolf said into her ear as she looked around at all of the cash lying around.

"Take as much as you want when I'm through." He said closing inching his hands up her skirt.

"Billie, get him to turn the lights off." Wolf said trying to keep his rage hidden.

She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed Martin down to the bed, hard. Then with a pair of bedroom eyes she walked backwards and hit the light switch. Martin entranced by her white form standing out in the darkness crawled to her on his knees. He really seemed into the abuse… she could work with that.

With her first true grin of the night she put her heeled shoe onto his chest to keep him at a distance.

"Ohhh Carrie-Anne, why are you so cruel to me?" He said with a demented look on his avian face.

* * *

"Now Panther." Wolf said.

"Got it." Panther said fidgeting around in a fuse box: "Everyone ready in 3, 2, 1…" Panther cut the power to the elevators, and then the penthouse.

The guards underneath Leon were suddenly in darkness; however Leon was sporting some night vision goggles and all they heard was the grate hitting the floor.

"What was that?" A germen shepherd said, then Leon plopped down to the floor silently and all anyone heard was his gravelly voice:

"Your death."

* * *

Billie, in an effort not to let the creepy little bird kiss her had taken off the top of her dress and let him play around with her; this made her want to throw up, but she felt comfort in knowing this would be over soon. She inched him on the floor towards the money. She could feel something stiff poking through his pants and bile rose up in her throat.

Wolf had no time to be angry; he moved quickly, packing up the projector and other equipment into the bag Leon had brought and walked out to the balcony. Using the auto-pilot feature Billie had installed for him in his e-patch; and like magic saw his Wolfen cutting into the sky heading towards him, he opened the cockpit from where he was standing on the railing; then strapping the bag to himself leaped off as it flew by. He landed with a thud into his seat and straitened himself out. Closing himself in, he got to work on the next phase of the operation.

Panther ran out of the hotels basement into the ship lot and got into his own craft, booting it up he was ready to join Wolf in the sky.

Martin looked up from Carrie-Anne as he heard something banging out of the room; it almost sounded like bodies dropping.

"What was that?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Nothing you should worry about…" Billie said clutching a large wad of bills; she was so ready for this to end.

* * *

Leon looked around with his night vision at all of the blood spattered walls, and the knifed corpses all around him; each one had a look of terror, frozen onto their face forever. Doomed to never know the cause of their own deaths. Leon stood their holding the two large knives he had swooshed around like a small tornado killing them all in a flash, one in each hand; both caked with wet, thick blood. He stood there for a moment and reared his head back; the rush was practically orgasmic. Then as quickly as he had appeared, he made his way back into the vent, leaving no trace that he was ever there aside from the carnage.

"I have to level with you…" Billie said re-capturing Martin's attention. "I was sent here; just for you, by an old friend." She said leaning up off of him.

"Oh; who is that my beautiful concubine?" He said thinking he was about to get the best sex he ever had. Billie looked down on the creepy little man, and her face took on a brooding look of disgust as she said:

"Dexter Tyson."

Martin's eyes grew wide, but before he even had time to react; Billie threw a left hook right into his beak; she heard a crack and saw blood spatter out. But Martin quickly began to crawl away.

"Guards! Guards!" he yelled pathetically.

Billie grabbed him by the tail feathers and with surprising strength of rage dragged him back to her; as he cried out like a small child she took the wad of money crumpled up in her hand and shoved it into his mouth. His muffled screams broke through it:

"D-DON'T KILL ME, PLEASE!" Billie took her knife out from her garter and stabbed it through his hand and into the carpet to keep him from going anywhere. He screamed out in pain spewing bills and blood from his beak all over. Then she stood up and fixed the top of her dress to cover herself.

She turned around for less than one second to grab another wad of cash; but when she turned around he had pulled the knife from his hand and was running away. She ran after the trail of money he had left behind and saw him crumpled up at the not working elevator pressing the button repeatedly.

"Oh God, please don't kill me! Whatever Tyson is paying you I'll double it! TRIPLE IT! JUST LET ME LIIIVE-" He was cut off as something wrapped around his neck.

Billie looked her best through the pale lights of the skyline coming in through the window; it looked like a rope, attached to something large. It was Leon's tail; Leon made the bird look up at him with a simple twist of his tail.

"Never trust a beautiful woman, at least not one who is interested in **you**…" Leon hissed in a gnarled voice.

Billie chuckled a bit, and wadded up the cash as best she could; then she shoved it into his mouth and pushed it down his throat.

"Finish him…" She said slowly with her part of the contract with Tyson complete: she was here, that's all. She strolled back into the room to get her favorite knife from the floor.

Leon sported a wide grin; he was finally strangling this annoying target that he had wanted to for days. Martin clawed at Leon's tail, and writhed around trying to break free: it was useless. Laughing manically Leon tightened his grip and watched Martin's eyes bulge out, and bills fly out as he made gargling sounds. Then he heard a snap. Marin's eyes went pale, and his body went limp.

Leon loosened his tail and let him drop to the floor, letting his rush flow through his cold blood like the sun.

"Damn Leon…" Billie chuckled replacing her knife.

"Shut up and fill this up." He said tossing a soft square at her; she unwrapped it into its full shape, it was a thin bag.

"With the money?" She asked following him to the bedroom.

"Wolf's orders." He said.

* * *

"Shit!" Wolf hissed as he looked down below; someone had called the police.

"There must have been a panic button somewhere, that was pushed when the lights went out…" Panther said observing.

"The damn guards." Leon said into the chat.

Billie and Leon were stuffing bills into the sacks as fast as they could; when they were full they made a jog for the other room. Billie looked out at the two Wolfens hovering out of the windows.

"Get down," Wolf ordered them, and they dove down to the floor as Panther and Wolf shot out the windows.

Leon and Billie shot back up to their feet when the firing ceased and both made a run for the window.

"Gahh!" Billie screamed as they leapt out; she landed on Wolfs vessel and Leon landed on Panther's.

"Get us out of here!" Billie hissed looking down at the spotlights pointing up at them.

"I'm on it!" Wolf snarled back to her while he summoned up Leon and Billie's ships with his patch.

"And Billie." Wolf said as they flew off. She looked at him in his cockpit, looking out at her.

"You are one hell of a mechanic!" He smiled.

"Tell me something I don't know!" She yelled over the wind.

* * *

**Sorry this chapter was so choppy; i was trying to make it feel like watching a good action flick. Tell me your favorite part in the reviews! Oh and you had better review! XD**


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Billie's hair whipped wildly in the updraft and out of its braids; obscuring her vision as Wolf and Panther tried to get around the sky-scraper quickly but still keep their ships level.

"Shit!" Wolf spat and made a hard left turn.

"SHIIIIT!" Billie screamed and held on to his wing for dear life.

The police had called in their ship squads; and Arwings painted with the New Lullix City police insignia had swarmed the airspace around the hotel.

"LAND YOUR VESSELS AT ONCE OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE." Called out a voice from one of the Arwings into the air.

"Screw you!" Leon called over the noise, and then from Panther's wing began to open fire with a blaster. The police took evasive actions giving the too Wolfens a way to the back of the hotel.

"There they are!" Wolf shouted as Billie and Leon's ships began to fly into view. Billie looked out at the Arwings chasing them, she knew the way they were positioning themselves; they were taking aim at them.

"THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING." Called the voice again.

"Leon jump!" Billie shouted behind her.

"But our ships are still too far!" He screamed back to her; she could barely hear him or see him because of her hair and the varieties of noise all about.

"Just DO IT!" She screamed then leaped off of Wolf's wing.

"Damnit all!" Leon spat to himself then jumped. He had been expecting to fall for a bit; but almost instantly he felt his body being suspended.

He looked up to see a large hand, made out of a warm darkness holding onto his torso. For a moment they all looked at Billie who was still falling backwards, her right hand reaching out shrouded in a massive shadow lace arm. With all her might she flipped herself over and threw Leon towards his ship.

Wolf saw the opening and took it; he looped his ship back around and as he flew towards the police upside down opened fire nailing a couple of them and zooming through the clusterfuck. Panther had been making his way straight upwards to get the high ground on everyone so to speak; looking below him he saw Wolf's ship emerge from the cloud of destruction.

As Leon and Billie's ships drew closer and the cockpits opened; Leon landed on his ships wing with a surprising degree of grace; then he crawled into his seat and strapped himself in. Billie looked at him safely in his vessel with large solid black eyes, and then with a slight smirk from the rush of adrenaline pointed her striped fists down and shadow lace looking like a couple of flamethrowers shot out of her hands propelling her upwards. Her hair that had just been trailing behind her as she was falling down, stopped and became forced in front of her once again as she fell up.

And in one smooth motion her baby zoomed under her and she let herself fall right into the cockpit.

"Now Panther!" Wolf said zooming away quickly.

The people below all looked on at the aerial combat going on, from the ground and from hotel balconies. And for a moment all moved slowly as the firing ceased and from Panther's ship a red trail of light slowly fell into the midst of the Arwing cluster.

"BOMB!" One of the police called and they all began to scatter: but it was too late. It exploded sending them flying in every direction; debris fell onto the casino, shattering glass and breaking concrete apart. People scrambled around in a panicked stampede trying to avoid a piece of Arwing landing on them. Screams rung out into the night air as the ground force police tried to keep everyone calm and orderly.

"WHEW! I bet that cleared your sinuses!" Billie said over chat strapping in and closing the canopy over herself.

"The explosion or the freefall?" Panther said in a velvety voice, that one would not expect from someone who just set a bomb off.

"They got backup." Wolf said watching more come towards them from the direction of the city.

"Well they are persistent, I'll give them that." Leon said in an exited voice.

This time the Arwings had no warnings to give, they chased the four ships over the glittered city opening a barrage of lasers on them. Billie took a good three shots before she finally tried to loop away; but she could not shake the one on her tail. She growled in frustration and tried to get the ship behind her, but he was persistent. Suddenly Wolf's ship appeared in front of hers; flying right at her. She hadn't been looking at him so had no idea when he did that, but she pulled up and shot into the sky: and with that Wolf opened direct fire onto the Arwing. With the eight turrets Billie had upgraded him with, he sent a large trail of hot plasma at the cop and then it started to smoke and sputter, they watched it fall; making a crash landing no doubt.

"How many times am I gonna have to save your ass?" Wolf said over chat.

"What do you mean? I wasn't in any danger!" She said in a snarky voice.

"Oh no?"

"NAW! I would have thought of something!" She said leveling herself out.

"Hey love birds! Bicker later." Panther said trying to shake one off of his tail.

"You guys, I know these models." Billie said over chat for everyone to hear. "They are the same that the Corneria City police use. They are made to deal with problems within the city, but they can't withstand the pressure or temperatures that space traveling models can; all we have to do is get off of Corneria." She finished pulling up in a straight line towards the sky.

"Sounds good to me." Wolf said following her directly. Leon and Panther were not far behind.

They made their way straight upwards as fast at their engines would allow, and they looped around one another trying to avoid the incoming laser fire from the cops; and as the stars began to look larger and more numerous around them the Arwings below started to get ice buildup. Several of them drew backwards; and then as they began to breach atmosphere the three remaining ships looked as though they malfunctioned; and they simply came to a slow and then fell backwards.

"Alright!" Billie said happy that their getaway looked to be a sure thing now.

They all kept their noses steady. And just as suddenly as they had felt the pressure of the flames pushing down on them from the atmosphere; they felt no gravity whatsoever. They looked around at a twinkling galaxy of stars that put the shining lights of New Lullix to shame.

"Job done; Team Star Wolf head for Sargasso." Wolf said to his team members as they entered a hyperspace jump.

* * *

Several hours later they pulled into the Sargasso Space Zone; they were all too tired to force small talk or even rave about how well everything had gone. As the pilots began to emerge from their cockpits Billie simply opened her canopy and unstrapped herself, but she just sat there. Not only did she feel blasted; she looked blasted. Her make-up was smeared with sweat and her hair was frizzy and all over the place around her head like a great, black tumbleweed.

"Now that… was a job…" Panther said with something between a stretch and a yawn.

"That was some of the most fun I have ever had." Leon said also feeling tiredness pull at his eyes, and he took the bag of cash he had gathered and dropped it on the flight deck floor.

Wolf looked up at Billie sitting in her ship; staring blankly forward.

"Billie?" Wolf said walking up and standing on her baby's wing to be on her level.

"Here." She said flatly and handed him the bag one money.

"Heads up!" He took it and tossed it down to Panther who it hit in the chest catching him by surprise and nearly knocking him over.

"Are you alright?" He said watching her slowly get up.

"Yeah… that wasn't the first time I had to do something like that to get a target but…" she trailed off and smoothed her hair out of her face.

"But?" Wolf pressed.

"That was the first time it bothered me." She said drooping her ears down and stepping a heeled foot over the side of her cockpit to get out.

Wolf wanted to smile hearing that she had hated it as much as he had; but immediately thought better of it.

"Billie; I promise, I will never make you do anything like that again." He said grabbing one of her hands in his and helping her down.

"Thanks Wolf, but it had been my idea. It's okay." She said in a reassuring tone.

They stared at each other for a moment, Billie gave him a tired smile and he looked into her black eyes and then suddenly everything stopped around him. He stared down at her eyes and everything; not just her looked like it was in black and white. He looked around at the base; the walls looked wobbly, then he looked closer at them: they were moving. They… and everything else was suddenly made out of shadow lace. And then Wolf was in the dark, everything was engulfed in the warm darkness; the color black that swirled around him, it felt like Billie. It was Billie. Wasn't it Billie?

He looked at the hand he was holding; the humanoid figure before him now looked clear, as though she was made of glass… or some kind of stone? It glowed in a pale white light… was it moonlight. He stared at it entranced… like he had been with the moons on so many other dark nights, on so many planets. The humanoid figure stood perfectly still before him, little stones of light and silver danced slowly off of it and permeated the darkness of Billie… And Wolf felt such a rush of blood to his head he thought he might pass out from too much oxygen. But then he felt it again, the primal feeling of tap, tap, tap on the back of his head.

And then it became a real sensation; the clawed finger again… like on a Fichina base. It hurt with each and every slow tap, but he could not break his eyes away from the moon for which he would have to howl. He would have to howl… he wanted to howl like an animal… like they had on Ficina. What was stopping him? …the pain from the tapping grew sharp and then:

"Lord O'Donnell!" Called out a random voice.

Wolf turned around to his normal looking Sargasso Zone and saw an ape standing on the flight deck below.

"Lord O'Donnell, forgive my intrusion; but Mr. Tyson is on the hold for you in the lounge." He said nervously with a slight bow.

"Wonderful…" Billie said in a sarcastic voice getting down.

Wolf just stood there and put his hand to the back of his head… no evidence that he had ever felt pain.

"Hey, Corneria to Wolf." Panther said looking up at him.

"Let's go see what he wants." Wolf gruffed and leaped down.

The four Star Wolf members walked towards the elevator with their luggage and as they rode up Wolf heard them all talking to each other but tuned out exactly what they were saying; his own thoughts were racing. 'What just happened to me? Did anyone else notice? Or, did it only take an instant..?' His thought went on as they made their way.

* * *

"You know better than to keep me waiting." Tyson said looking down on the sleepy squad.

"Keep you waiting, we handled it." Wolf said sounding pissed off.

"BWAHAHA! I know, the news is everywhere!" Tyson laughed in a sadistic way.

"Martin, my old accountant, found quite dead in his penthouse suite, money protruding from his broken neck. And I saw the security footage… until the power was cut… Billie was present indeed." The cat's eyes glared down at her in that floozy dress. And Wolf felt himself getting more pissed.

"We want the cost of doing business for this one forwarded to the account. Now." He said keeping his composure.

"Done. Now, get to work on the next target; and try not to draw so much attention… And Wolf. Don't forget who your superior is with that tone of yours." He said like ice then blipped out.

"I hate him so very, very much…" Billie said.

Wolf went up to a monitor and opened up their account stash window; the money was in the account already. He breathed a sigh of relief and ran his claws angrily through his hair.

"Panther is too tired to think of the next target right now. I am going to retire…" He said turning out of the room.

"Yeah, all of the excitement left me drained too." Leon said with a sick satisfaction.

"Right behind you…" Billie said sleepily and followed them out.

Wolf stayed in the room and listened to them leave.

"Seriously that was more fun that I thought it would be; with you throwing me and all." He heard Leon's voice down the hallway.

* * *

After Wolf had cooled off, he went to get himself cleaned up. He walked back into his bedroom and saw Billie sitting on the foot of the bed; her brownish black blazes had returned to the curve of her face and she was combing out her black locks with that antique of hers. She looked up at him in her towel and saw he was in nothing but a towel as well, and that old necklace that he refused to take off ever.

"Some mission huh?" She joked in a tired voice as he closed the door. All he could do was nod.

"If I ever meet the sadistic bastard who invented high heels I'll choke **him **with money." She giggled.

"I thought you looked good in them." He said taking off his e-patch… he hadn't noticed it until right now but somewhere along the way he had become completely comfortable letting her see his scars.

"I looked good in that dress too, but I don't think I'm ever going to wear it again…" She cringed.

"So when do you think Tyson is going to throw us for a spin?" Wolf said taking his towel off and dabbing his fur dry all over.

"Soon…" she said softly. Everyone was now aware they were going into some kind of trap, but they would go into it anyways. In the line of mercenary work there was an unspoken truth that was understood by all: If it's not this trap today, it's just another tomorrow. So get the money while you can and worry about it later.

Billie stood up and let her towel drop to the floor. She could still feel that creepy little raven's hands all over her; she walked up to Wolf and hugged his bare body to hers. She wanted to only remember his hands on her, which was hard to do since she remembered so little of their intimate encounters. Wolf dropped his towel and hugged her to him.

"We can handle it." He said finally acknowledging Billie's strength under pressure.

The two of them fell to the bed with a kiss; it did not go any farther than that however. They were both tired enough to not have racing thoughts for a change… and they wanted to remember, they wanted to remember every sensation tonight. There was no need for it to go any farther. And soon they were both in a happy sleep, in these rare moments the world beyond them didn't exist. Neither did the problems it brought with it.

* * *

**Hello my rabid readers. I hope you liked this one. What's up with Wolf? Is he going mad? I shouldn't have to tell you that after everything Billie has gone through she is a bit mentally disturbed. But if you like flashbacks to the past you are going to like where this story is going... Is that a spoiler? Meh anyways. In your reveiws I want to hear your favorite part and, something you want me to throw in there if you want any easter eggs again. Those are fun. More reviews i get; the more I am inclined to write!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Okay before we begin my Duckies I want to tell you that if you would like a better visual of Billie; two pieces of my own creation now serve as my profile picture and the new cover for this story. They are of Billie, exactly as I imagined her. I thought this cover fit better than what I had anyways. So, let me know in the reveiws what you think. And as for this chapter, it is pretty straight forward; hope you like flash backs! Enjoy!**

* * *

CHAPTER 14

The following morning happened in quick blurs; everyone getting ready to depart; getting food in their stomachs, Wolf barking orders and making plans for shipments. The four of them getting all of the money they had grabbed counted out. Not too much time later they found themselves bound for Fichina again, they could not keep running back to Sargasso after every mission; the mission today was to get the new base livable once and for all.

The hours trickled on; all of the Star Wolf family members flying down to the cold Fichinan surface and running all around the base. Each busy with their own tasks, Billie trying to get the plumbing in order:

"Oh, come on you!" she shouted a great variety of swears in an old Esreian dialect that made Wolf pause as he was emerging from the bathroom; where he had just installed the sink.

"So, the reverse osmosis generator still aint' workin'?" Wolf said to her from a safe distance. She glared at him as she spoke:

"The water is in and everything is all set up, the electricity is flowing and all of the wiring is right! I don't understand why it's not working…"

With an almost bored look on his face Wolf walked up to the generator in the hallway and asked:

"Is it on?"

"Yeah, duh…" she said crossing her arms in aggravation.

Wolf looked down at it blankly and then lifted up his right leg, sending his boot into the side of the machine several times.

"What are you doing?!" Billie said in a freaked out tone; just as she finished however, the machine roared to life and they could both hear the water begin to pump within it.

Wolf bent his ears back and looked over to the shocked Billie with a sort of 'HAHA' look on his face.

"Oh… shut up…" she said turning around in irritation and making a quick stride away.

* * *

The hours passed on in the base; and ships would come and go on the small flight deck to and from Sargasso. Each bringing more and more crates of their crap with them; until at last they seemed to have everything they needed. By the time day began to shift into the dark, they were all exhausted.

"Damnit, I'm too damn tired to unpack all of this crap!" Billie said looking for a place to sleep. The three mattresses brought in from Sargasso were still packed up.

"I'm sleeping in my cockpit…" Leon said sleepily dragging his tail on the floor behind him as he made his way to the flight deck.

Wolf watched him go, and looked to see Panther curled up like a small cat inside of a crate; and Billie making a tired and angry face at all of the boxes crowding around the small kitchen everywhere. Even he was feeling exhausted from all of the running back and forth they had done; and the base was still a mess of wires and unassembled crap.

"I'm taking a hint from those two." He said behind Billie trying to get her attention. She stood still and made a kind of grunting noise.

Her bare feet made plip-plop noises on the stone floors as she turned around and walked past him to the flight deck; she was barely able to crawl into the plush seat of her baby and instantly fall asleep. Wolf was left up alone for insomnia to chew away at his phsycy once again. He stood in the garage area looking out of the window; out at the full moon that was shining down on the snow banks of Fichina tonight, reflecting off of them with a ghostly glow into the quiet dark.

And while Billie was caught in her sleep, his mind began to wander around like it was so prone to doing on his nights of insomnia. He stared up at the moon, in the strange hypnotism that took over lupines on nights like these. The necklace he always wore around his neck began to feel heavy; far heavier than the small stone should. It was just his imagination of course; his feelings of guilt, Lord help him he wanted to tell Billie the truth. But he could not face it… he could not face the look he would get from those big black eyes: he would not tell her the whole truth… the necklace grew heavier around his neck.

But still he looked up at the moon in all of its glittering light… And then came the distinct plip-plop he had heard earlier.

"You should be sleeping right now…" Came Billie's seductive voice from behind. Wolf didn't say a word, nor did he turn his gaze from the moon. But he heard her walk up right behind him, then felt her hands stroke his face, and scratch behind his ear affectionately.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back at her touch, and then her voice filled his ears again.

"You should sleep Wolf… sleep…" He leaned back into her and felt himself grow into a pleasant area between tiredness and arousal.

"Sleep…" She cooed with her lips right at his ear. Her hands moved down his face to his neck, at first it was a pleasant sensation, he could feel her warmth, and his skin almost seemed to pick up the warm of the moons glow on his fur. But then, something was wrong; her hands grew tight around his neck, he gasped for breath but could find none.

His eyes shot open and he looked up at her; it was wrong: she was wrong. Her eyes were black, blacker than anything he had ever seen, like a cold void beyond the pull of a black hole. The moonlight showed on the hideous, angry smile she was looking down on him with.

"Sleep Wolf… sleep. Just. Like. JAMES." She said to him slowly in her seductive voice, pushing him down to the floor in her stranglehold.

He clawed his great fingers at her forearms, but she had an unnatural strength. Then he felt it; he was sinking into the floor, he tried to yell, yell at her, yell for help but nothing came out. He felt pressure building up in his head and behind his eyes; and in one second she looked down at him with those cold black eyes the next she let go and let him sink all the way down into the floor.

He fell with a hard thud on a wooden surface; he coughed and gagged for air. He sucked air in large gasps holding his neck, and his bones screamed in pain from the way he had landed, but he ignored it. He looked around at the well lit room he was in; there were papers and books scattered around everywhere. He stood up slowly from the hard wood floor he had fallen onto and looked out of the window; the sun was brightly streaming in and he could see trees and all sorts of other dense vegetation outside.

Looking around at the walls, he could see all sorts of papers with both precise, and scribbled blue prints plastered all over the walls. There were about four large desks in the room, each covered in the inane scribbling of; well surely of someone mad. He stepped up to the desk leaning against the wall in front of the window, there were wanted ads of various criminals all over the wall and desk; some with large black X's over the pictures, others with large black D's and the rest blank as they were.

"Deceased?" Wolf guessed in a low voice looking at the D's.

He turned around and saw a metal working station on the other side of the room near a door. Cautiously he stepped over to it and looked at the wires all over the place, there were blueprints for a strange turret design at this station, and they looked familiar… He looked at the wall very closely and saw a strange language scribbled around, overrunning a collage of older blueprints. His ears twitched up and his eyes widened; he had seen that before, on Billie's blueprints. He was fairly sure she had referenced it to be some form of Shadow Legion code. And he did a double take of the blueprints on the desk; they were an early looking model of Billie's turrets.

Wolf quickly turned around in confusion; he knew this was Billie's old base on Corneria: 'But how the fuck did I get here?' He thought. Then he heard a loud knocking sound; it startled him and he quickly turned to the door and put his hand on his gun, waiting for anything to burst through. But then he heard a moan from the other side of the room and whipped his head around; there was a large netted hammock in the corner of the room hidden behind one of the many desks. Wolf watched in awe as he saw Billie rise up from the tangle of sheets on it and stretch her arms up with another sleepy moan.

"Come in." She said in a groggy voice, only to be met with another knock. "COME IN!" She shouted in aggravation.

Wolf's jaw went slightly agape as she stretched up to her feet in a little white and black pair of panties with a matching bra. Her hair was in two separate braids on either side of her head and they fell down her back like two pigtails; it actually made her look a little younger.

"Billie?" Wolf said walking towards her. She looked directly at him as the door behind them opened; her face looked exactly the same she really hadn't aged a day.

"Well, who can it be now?" She said walking right through Wolf, he held his chest he hadn't even felt it; and then he quickly looked around to see her talking to who ever had just come in the door.

"Oh right, the same person it always is! Seriously Jameses… why do you even knock anymore?" She laughed standing in the broad daylight in her underwear.

Wolf looked over stunned at the sight before him; James McCloud was standing before him, in his cheap sunglasses and an older looking Cornerian military uniform.

"I keep forgetting you aren't shy…" James said trying to look in any other direction.

"Comes with age." Billie laughed in a bubbly way Wolf had never heard before.

"This is a memory?" Wolf asked out loud seeing if they would hear. They did not.

"This is a memory…" He said again.

* * *

Billie, lying curled up in the cockpit of her ship was caught up in a whirlwind of subconscious activity. Her body stirred and twitched in her sleep, but her mind wandered through darkness, a familiar darkened hallway.

"Where am I?" she felt the need to say it aloud. Then she stopped and looked at a door, she listened to the strange noises coming from within. They sounded like… moaning, loud moaning; and then a crash.

Billie thought someone was fighting within and she whipped the door open and ran into the room. She froze and stared at the sight before her; it was her, and Wolf. She stood in his office in Sargasso and watched Wolf moving with grunts and heavy breathing noises over her as she clawed his back and moaned out loudly into the darkness on the floor in front of his desk.

"This… is…" She said but finished the sentence in her mind:

'The first time we made love? No…' she looked around; there was no shadow lace anywhere, the room was completely clear: the starlight streamed in and created a wet shine from the hot sweat that was being tossed around from their bodies. Billie felt herself becoming aroused as she watched on at Wolf howling over her on his hands and knees like an animal. His large muscles flexed over and over as he picked up speed and then; he arched his back upward and let forth a mighty howl. The Billie on the floor screamed out loudly and then fell limp, with her eyes closed she gasped for breath. Wolf turned his head over and looked right at the Billie standing in the doorway.

Billie's arousal faded and was replaced quickly by fear as she looked into his eyes. They were not Wolf's eyes; although the scar over his left eye remained intact his eyes were not right. They had no white in them at all, and they both looked the same; like big golden and black spheres. He glared her down like he was glaring down prey.

"What have you done to me Billie?" He said in his thick accent, his voice was deeper than normal; like some kind of animal he looked at her and growled as his tail began to swoosh through the air behind him once again.

"I… I don't know." She gasped in fear.

He looked back down to the Billie he was on top of as her legs fell down to the floor and dragged his teeth across her chest; at that moment Billie was almost sure she could hear a heartbeat… her own heartbeat. But his teeth had not broken skin at all.

She couldn't look anymore as the heartbeat rung in her ears like a bell; ringing on and on she put her hands over her ears and turned around to run out of the room; keeping her eyes closed tightly. She ran on and on until her lungs screamed at her to stop; and then she ran on gasping for breath. Her body ran smack into something and she fell backwards. She looked up from the cold metal floor at what she had run into through the darkness; a tall man stood in front of her not facing her.

"I'm sorry…" she said getting up, but he didn't even seem to notice her.

"Hello?" She said looking at his back in the dark room they were in.

He didn't answer; but she did notice what he was dressed in, some sort of red and black military uniform. His grey tail twitched slightly behind him as he stood there.

"Excuse me?" She walked up to the front of him and then let out a gasp.

It was Wolf. Certainly a younger Wolf, but she knew that violet gaze anywhere. He wore a plain black patch over his left eye and had a blank stare on his face. When she noticed it was Wolf the rest of her surroundings seem to clear of the black slithering masses that had just clouded it. However she could still see the shadow lace, but only out of her peripheral vision; every time she tried to look directly at it, it would swoosh away.

"Well?" Wolf said to a figure emerging from a door she had not seen before.

"The shift change is in about three minutes; I suggest you get moving if you want to get a word in." Said a much younger looking Leon, he adorned the same red and black uniform that Wolf did. And he looked even skinnier; if that was possible. Wolf gave him a nod and made a fast stride down the dimly lit metal hallway.

Billie trotted after him; lucky for her she seemed invisible to them. As they went onward Billie looked over at the young Wolf taking in his details, he was the same height as the Wolf she was familiar with, but he had less muscle tone and seemed more… well angry. Wolf always had an enraged look in his eye: that was just the way he was she guessed. But this Wolf just looked… like someone who was looking for blood. He quickly turned corners, corner after corner, and then made a jog down a short hallway and Billie stopped when he did. A brown ape in a uniform similar to Wolf's, but with subtle differences passed by and Wolf gave an awkward sort of nod; which the ape seemed to ignore completely. Wolf turned his head and watched him go, when he was out of sight he quickly rushed into the room; Billie followed her bare feet making noise on the cold metal that only she could hear.

They entered what looked like a solitary confinement cell. The entire room was dark except for the area behind two walls of bars that contained a single prisoner. Wolf slowly walked up to the first set of bars and looked in at the vulpine sitting in a crumpled heap on the floor. Billie stood beside him, put her hands on the bars and winced at the figure. He wore nothing but a shredded pair of green pants and his fur looked matted, with dry blood. He bore fresh burn scars and stitched up gashes all over his flesh.

"No…" Billie said in realization. "Please no…" Tears stung at her eyes as the vulpine looked up with a pair of bright emerald eyes; bright with an unbroken spirit.

"Well, well, this is a surprise… guess Andross got sick of the usual torture." He said in a surprisingly clear voice.

"You know… I've been waitin' a long time to see you like this." Wolf said through the darkness… but he didn't sound angry, or disappointed. He sounded… remorseful almost.

"Wish granted." James said with a chuckle. "So, are you here to shoot the breeze? Or are you some kind of a messenger? If you are, tell Andross I think that was his grandmother trying to work me over the other day; barely felt a thing." He said, but Billie could see him shaking… maybe from hunger she guessed, or pain.

"How can you still be so level headed about this?" Wolf said in disgust.

"Comes with age." James said.

"See? What is that, a fortune cookie?"

"Nah, just something a friend of mine said to me once." James said.

Billie felt like she wanted to throw up at those words; she had said that to him so many times… Even after everything he had endured after they quit speaking; he still thought of her as an old friend. Didn't he?

'Is this real?' She thought gripping her head or was she just going crazy. Then she heard Wolf speak again.

"You're still damn fool McCloud! Once Andross is through with you; he's going after Corneria. The entire world and everyone on it will burn. And you don't even try to fight back."

"Oh I'm not too worried about that. I may have failed to kill Andross… but my son will not." James said looking into Wolf's eye with a gaze of stone certainty.

"You've finally lost it McCloud… Turned in by your own teammate, you helped your other stupid friend get away, and for what? So you could stay here; why don't you try to break out huh? Why do yah just sit there?!" Wolf spat.

"Well if you're offering to help…" James said. Wolf just stood there silently, and then he turned around.

"That's your problem Wolf… That was **always** your problem…"

Wolf quickly turned back and gripped the bars pushing his muzzle through.

"At least I'm on the winning side!" He said, the angriest Billie had ever seen him.

"For the moment." James laughed.

"You're crazy, and you are gonna to rot in that cell and die!" Wolf said storming out.

Billie watched Wolf march out in anger and then turned and watched James in his cell. He didn't look sad, or happy. The look on his face was one of pity.

"That's everyone's problem…" He whispered as the scene went black around Billie.

"No… NO!" She cried reaching out for the fading silhouette of James. But she had no pull in this world of illusions; she could only black out.

* * *

Wolf stood looking at James and Billie talk as if he were actually there still.

"Well, at least put some pants on." James said turning around not to look.

"Ugh, pants at a time like this?" Billie said digging around through piles of tools and books.

Wolf kept staring on at the scene, unable to look away. As she threw some white jeans on and a black t-shirt James had been looking at one of her desks; there was an empty bottle of vodka and a huge bowl of sliced up and squeezed joogee fruit.

"You been drinkin' again?" James asked turning to the fully clothed Billie.

"NO… I was drinking yesterday." She said like there was a huge difference.

"Well, a bounty hunter should stay on their toes. You never know when something will happen." James said looking at her wall of posters.

"Yeah that's true… tell me have you ever seen, THIS ONE." Billie yelled tossing the vodka bottle at him, as they had been walking around the room.

James turned and caught it with an:

"OOO!"

"Oh yeah, what about this one!" she threw the bowl at him.

"OOOO!" He caught it with his other hand.

"OH, you think you're so cool! With your pilot reflexes!" Billie said waving her hands around in the air.

Wolf looked on as the two stood there and laughed for a minute.

"So, Jameses! How is Vixxy?" Billie inquired lifting up a small garbage pail and tossing old fruit into it.

"She's good; she's still getting used to the idea of this mercenary thing." He said putting the objects she had thrown at him down.

"Yeah, how much more dangerous could it be than being a soldier." Billie said jokingly.

"Yeah, that was my argument… But uhm, Billie that's actually why I came over."

"I thought we were done talking about that." Billie said dismissively, she tossed the pail down and started picking up scattered papers.

"Well, you would be perfect for the job… and come on, Peppy and Vixxy, they are all exited to meet yah. They were really disappointed that you didn't get to the wedding. And…"

"James." Billie said slamming her palms onto the desk. "We talked about this."

Wolf noticed her not making eye contact with the vulpine. And a grimace grew on his face when he realized what was coming next; this was the falling out Billie had told them about.

"Yes Billie: we did. And now I'd like to talk about it again." He said crossing his arms.

Billie whipped around to look at him, well to glare at him.

"Look, you don't have to be there 24/7; you can bounty hunt on the side if you'd like. All I'm asking is that you at least come down and meet the guys you know."

"Pass…" Billie said walking out of the door to the side of the room. James followed.

"Billie! It's not like you'll lose anything. You can still live here and-"

Wolf followed them out to see Billie's baby parked under a large canopy, hidden from view. There was also a large flower box with joogee fruit vines growing on it in the warm soil. He turned his attention back to them as they continued arguing.

"Look James! You are my best friend; and I told you my reasons were my own for why I can't join. So stop it!"

"Well, Billie! You are one of my best friends too! You taught me about tech; you told me how to talk to women, and even told me how to go about asking Vixxy out. And as my friend, I would think you would want to help."

"Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?" Billie said turning around to look at him in the sunshine.

"I said before, if you join I'll tell you." James said in a low voice.

"James…" Billie said feeling trapped by her blood. "Clearly, we no longer have anything to gain by working together. You are going to be busy with this freelance stuff; and I'm going to be busy with bounty hunting stuff. So maybe you should just go." Billie said in a voice; shaky with either anger, or sadness Wolf couldn't tell.

James stood there and nodded slightly.

"Billie, if you change your mind-"

"I know how to find you…" She said turning around and walking barefoot to her baby.

Wolf watched on as James hung his head and turned around; walking slowly back to his Arwing. And then looked over at Billie standing next to her ship, still as a statue; he walked over to her but everything faded to black before he could reach her.

* * *

Billie and Wolf's eyes shot open at the same moment as the sun began to break on the horizon of Fichina. Billie sat up in her ship and held her head.

"Was that… real?" She whispered to herself.

Wolf opened his eyes, and picked his head up off of the cold garage floor and then looked at the dawn breaking over the snowcaps. He whipped cold sweat off of his brow and slowly stood up.

"How… was I able to see that?" He said gripping his head, still feeling a bit woozy.


	15. Chapter 15

**So sorry for the delay my Duckies; but I hope you like this one... it took forever too... But for fans of Metroid I threw an easter egg in there for you. And tried to slap some good comedy in there, I can't stand it when a dramatic chapter doesn't have a funny moment to spare. Makes the story stale in my opinion. As far as reviews go for this one, i really just want to know if you enjoyed it. And keep your eyes on my page as I am currently writing a one shot for fans of this trilogy, that will tell the small tale of how Wolf and Billie's paths did in fact cross when he was a child. So I hope you are looking forward to that. Special thanks to zewing for getting me past my writers block.**

* * *

CHAPTER 15

Billie stumbled through the base groggily; the motion detecting lights following her through into the bathroom. After tripping over several crates and boxes she finally opened the bathroom door and turned on the faucet full blast; splashing her face with cold water and listening to the white noise.

"That wasn't real…" she said into the mirror gripping the sides of the porcelain sink. She shut her eyes tight; but when she did all that laid within her mind's eye was that image of the injured James in his cell.

"That was not real…" she said slowly.

"What wasn't real?" A gruff voice said from the doorway.

"Wolf…" she said not looking up. "What color were the Venom military uniforms?"

Wolfs eyes opened wide. "You too…" He said in a low voice. Billie just turned the faucet off, but did not look at him.

"What did you see?" He said hesitantly knowing it would be bad.

"What color?" She said looking at him like ice.

"Black, and red mostly…" He said feeling more sweat bead under his fur.

"That… **was** real." She said putting her hand up to her mouth. She almost wanted to puke… but it felt more now like she had just dry swallowed a handful of gravel.

Wolf watched quietly as she leaned an arm on the wall to steady herself.

"You saw something too?" she asked in a dry throated voice.

"Your falling out… with James." He nodded. "Among other things…" He said putting a hand up to his throat.

"Was this the first time you saw something?" She asked quickly.

"No."

She stood fully up and looked over to his face… he looked a little shaken.

"I don't think we should be involved romantically anymore." She said shaking her head.

"Oh for fuck sakes Billie, now you are just over reacting." He argued back.

"Am I? Because last time I checked, hallucinating for no reason, then sharing memories isn't healthy or conducive to a working environment." She said putting her hands on her hips in a sort of, pissed off bitch fit pose.

Wolf opened his mouth to argue something back, but as hard as he tried he couldn't find a flaw in her logic… And the distractions they were causing him were getting out of hand. But fact of the matter is he still loved her; at that moment a horrible thought came into his brain.

"Fine!" he shouted, then pointed up a large index finger to her and continued. "But you are still a member of this team. Don't even let it cross your mind to leave Star Wolf; because I **will **find you if you leave." He put his hand down and they had a few moments of glaring silence.

"Fine." She said crossing her arms. "But I get the bedroom."

That made Wolf pause; he had only made three bedrooms since he thought they would be sharing a bed… realizing he was losing the fight he just nodded angrily. Billie huffed out an irritated sigh and brushed past him then stomped down the hallway.

"Fucking, damnit all…" He said with a slow face-palm.

* * *

The next two days passed in the new Star Wolf base without Billie and Wolf exchanging one more word. Panther and Leon didn't seem to notice their tempers getting worse; as they were both so much alike in that department, and all of the manual labor on this place was stressful. But after the two days of yelling and malnutrition, their new home no longer resembled itself. The bedrooms were stocked up with all of their personal crap, just like they were in Sargasso, and every utility was now completely functional.

The tech room where the two generator cores were housed; was now also home to a large hollow projector and a roundabout couch surrounding it. All of the bells and whistles were there, including their computer monitors and even the television settings for the projector were in place. Once again Star Wolf had a home.

"Where's Billie?" Wolf asked looking at Panther who was watching some bathing suit model show on the roundabout couch that had become Wolf's bed while Billie slept in the bedroom.

Not that Leon or Panther seemed to notice… Wolf always went to bed later than everyone else.

"She took that little cycle into Fichina City. She said she was getting us some real food." He purred looking on at the hollow display before him.

Wolf looked over at Leon on one of the sleek monitors; Billie had even upgraded them with the same kind of light keyboard from her own ship… in fact everywhere you looked in the place Billie's expert hands had brought something to it. And after not speaking to her for two days; especially after they vague way they had left things it was all eating away at him.

He gruffed a sort of growling noise as he made his way into the garage… why he was going there he didn't care to admit… But looking over at Billie's baby sitting in the bay silently made him a little edgier.

"We need a damn gym in this base…" He growled to himself looking out on the snowy landscape from the garage window.

Billie still wasn't back, although he had noticed the hallucinations had not plagued him in the two days they had not spoken. He didn't care; he was resenting the awkwardness that had crept its way between them. Even when she had first joined Star Wolf, it wasn't this awkward.

He thought back on that time through some pushups. Back then although they barely knew each other he had enjoyed her fast wit in their conversations… even if it had pissed him off at the time; looking back on it she was fun to argue with… and fight with, and pilot with. Sweat began to dampen his fur as he took out his rage on his muscles.

* * *

Billie was in the city was sitting on the outskirts staring blankly out at the setting sun on the horizon; she had gotten enough food to stock the base for a weeks time… But she wasn't in a rush to return to the awkwardness that had come between her and Wolf. She crossed her arms on the handlebars of the cycle he had made and rested her chin on them. Watching her visible breath rise up then fade into the cold Fichinian air.

Every time she got closer to Wolf, new questions about him rose into her head, and every time one was answered they only seemed to cause each other more pain… they just weren't good for each other is what it was seeming like… But she knew he still loved her or he would have kicked her off of Star Wolf. She thought back on the day he had shred the punching bag…

"You're my problem." Was what he had said.

"I… I don't know what I'm supposed to do…" She said ducking her head down…

If she wasn't a damn Legion this wouldn't be so damn hard… Her stupid blood… would always define how every relationship she would ever have with anyone would turn out. The image of her friend in that cell still clung to her brain with sharp little claws.

"James, what am I supposed to do?" She said in a shaky voice feeling helpless.

As soon as she said that the wind picked up from behind her, she slowly raised her head as it howled on past; like it was pushing her forward. She looked on at the snow flurries blowing with it in a smooth pathway that lead to the mountains. Words, words in the voice of the one who had said them rung through her head as the wind strode over her ears.

'That's your problem… that's everyone's problem…'

"What does that mean?!" She said in an aggravated voice and slammed her fist onto the seat.

She looked on as the sun vanished and the sky's blue bled out into black before her; the wind picked back up, and at that moment she was almost sure she heard a carefree, laid back sort of laugh.

* * *

The sounds of deep heavy breathing sailed around the stale windless air in the garage; Wolf's feet hung up in the air and his tail was outstretched giving him his balance. He looked down the large backs of his hands as they pushed his whole body up from the ground, then back down and repeated the motion over and over until all of the muscles in his upper body screamed with a burning sensation. Large beads of sweat streaked through the fur down his muzzle, and then slowly dripped off of his nose. And then he heard the familiar hum of his cycle echoing through the corridor he was facing.

With one last push, he let his body fall forward and caught himself on his knees and panted. Then he pulled himself up to a standing position as Billie drove in with a couple of snow flurries and a whoosh of fresh air.

"Why are you so out of breath?" Billie said as the engine shut down and she disembarked.

"Just happy to see you?" Wolf joked half heartedly.

"Riiiight… Just help me with these." Billie said pulling up the large seat to reveal a storage area stuffed with plastic bags.

"Can we talk for a minute?" Wolf said gripping the handles of every bag with his large hands and pulling them up.

"Shoot." Billie said returning the seat to its original position.

"The other night-" He began as she walked away, but cut him off:

"I'd rather not get into that right now."

Wolf trotted behind her with his heavy load, he knew that dismissive look; he had seen it when he got a glimpse of her memories. He rolled his eyes and followed her into the kitchen.

"Billie look-" But she cut him off again:

"You can set those on the island." She said taking off her red coat.

Wolf set them down and tried to continue:

"I think we left things off in a really vague place, and I just-" She cut him off:

"Have you hallucinated since we stopped sleeping next to each other?" She said not looking at him, just unpacking the bags.

"No. But what does…" Wolf trailed off as she started stocking the little fridge with stuff that actually looked good. And realization found its way to his face with a smirk.

"You clever little… You just wanted me to sleep away from you to troubleshoot the problem?" He chuckled.

"Basically… I'm surprised you didn't catch on sooner." She smiled up to him from her crouching position.

"But why?" He asked.

"Well… after that weird dream I had…" She trailed off remembering the fear when she had walked in on that animalistic version of Wolf plowing her in Sargasso, and shuddered.

"I realized, that after the first time we did that there were no problems… not even after the second or third… Not until we started sleeping next to each other did my insomnia come back; and your visions set in. And I realized that… it was me, just being near you."

"But how does that work?" He asked thinking back on it.

"I don't know… in fact as far as I know I'm the only Shadow Legion who has ever had sex. EVER." She said balling up the bags and tossing them into the trash.

"So, what do we do?" He said as they both leaned on the side of the stone island.

She hesitated looking at her ship. "The next mission." She said looking down at her feet, not knowing where else to look.

Wolf put his arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. They stood there in silence until they heard a snickering sort of laugh. They turned around to hear the voice of a Panther:

"How sweet…"

"How long were you two standin' there?!" Wolf said in a rage.

"Oh we came in around the time she told you to put the bags on the table." Panther sneered.

Leon stuck his long tongue out and made weird noises to mock them as Panther joined in. Wolf shot fully around and slammed a fist on the island:

"SON OF A BITCH POWALSKI! I will not have a repeat of Katina!" He yelled to shut them up.

"What happened on Katina?" Panther asked amused. Billie shrugged and Wolf went quiet as he realized the awkwardness he had brought upon himself.

"Actually it is an interesting story… Billie might like to hear it." Leon chimed.

"I'm warnin' you Leon…" Wolf started.

"We were on a heist job; I'm stuffed into a damn wall waiting for eye patch there to give me the signal, next thing I know he comes waltzing up with a couple of prostitutes…"

"PROSTITUTES?!" Billie glared at Wolf.

"Oh that is it!" Wolf ran at Leon claws out; but Leon clung to the stony wall and his skin blended in with it, as he maneuvered himself into the hallway.

Wolf followed as Billie and Panther waited in the kitchen; they heard a variety of swears in Wolf's thick accent and Leon's cackling laughs through the hallway.

"Well, it seems we won't get the whole story my dear…" Panther turned to Billie, who was bursting at the seams in laughter.

"Glad to see my advice was of use to you." Panther said seriously.

Billie quieted down and looked at her comrade.

"Yeah…" she breathed. "On the way back here; I was making plans to leave Star Wolf but… when I came back to this place… Wolf waiting for me and you guys too… I don't know. I think I have found the sense of family I always wanted but never could find."

"Indeed…" Panther said turning his attention to Wolf who had finally caught Leon in the hallway. "We are one dysfunctional family." Panther concluded.

"Hahaha… yeah… yeah." Billie said. "Don't tell Wolf…that I was going to leave." She said to her friend.

"Not a word." He said giving her a reassuring look with his bright golden eyes.

* * *

After they had a delicious dinner for once; they were gathered on the roundabout sofa looking at Tyson's next on the hit list.

"That is the strangest looking thing… I have ever seen." Said a bruised up Leon looking on at the target.

"It says here that it's called a hoooo min?" Panther said trying to read correctly.

"A human, you ding-bats. A human." Billie corrected them through her giggles.

"They hail from the Milky Way galaxy originally." Wolf said being familiar with the species himself.

"How do you two know this?" Leon said looking at them sitting next to each other.

"I had just… read up on them back on Venom…" Wolf said looking at Billie.

"Oh really?" She said. "I met one before."

They all looked at her now.

"Relax you guys… I know they look a bit strange having so little hair, and that weird pinkish skin; but really they are just like us for the most part." She said thinking back.

"Where did you meet an actual human?" Wolf asked a little impressed.

"Oh it was a long time ago; the human in question was a bounty hunter… but not like me…"

"What do yah mean?"

"Her name was Samus Aran. The kind of work she did… well it made me look like a friggin' amateur. She worked for some intergalactic federation that surprisingly had very little reach in the Lylat system… and well, let's just say they are the best of the best and leave it at that. They only went after the absolute worst in the galaxy… she, well humans are very capable. Not that I could compare an entire race to just her. But she was damn tough."

They all looked on, once again surprised at Billie's past.

"But really, humans like all of the same things we do; they think like us they have the same basic skeletal structure… and they are just as intelligent." Billie concluded.

Wolf nodded. "So I take it the target is not from Lylat."

"Nope. But he sure managed to piss Tyson off once he got here." Panther said looking back up at the humans picture.

"His name is Daniel. And he acted as an infiltration agent against Tyson; claiming to be there from another galaxy to get his feet wet in Lylat crime smuggling, and wound up being there to assassinate Tyson and his son." Panther said reading forward.

"What is he still doing in Lylat?" Wolf asked. "I mean, clearly he failed…"

"Well that's the kicker… he did leave… but came back to finish the job. Tyson has been keeping a close eye on his whereabouts since."

"Awfully dedicated for an assassin." Billie mumbled.

"Must be an enthralling target." Leon said eager to dig his daggers into another practiced assassin.

"And where is he now?" Wolf asked standing up and looking at the details of the aliens face; whitish pink skin, and brown short locks with a pair of eyes that rung out just as brown.

"Well speak of the devil…" Billie said looking at the current location… "Katina…"

Wolf shot another look at Leon, who snickered like he relished another beating.

"Well; what's our first move?" Panther asked.


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

"Soooo, as Panther understands it; we are just going to wing it?" Panther said in a strange tone as the four Wolfens sped on through the dark veil of space.

"Pretty much." Wolf answered in a flat tone.

"Well I like it!" Billie said exited. "This guy is supposed to be really unpredictable; so if we just go in there and wing it we can be just as unpredictable."

"Yes but don't expect the element of surprise… I'm sure he's aware Tyson wouldn't just let him sit around Katina on an island vacation without sending some kind of hit squad." Leon said ever hopeful this human assassin would present him the challenge he craved.

"We can hash the details out when we refuel on the mainland… Billie since your ship doesn't need refueling; you are going straight to the island to give us eyes on the target." Wolf ordered to his team.

"Right… Well we are still a long ways off so, I'm going to suspended sleep." She yawned and broke off her line.

"I concur…" Panther said following her example.

"I am more deadly with my daggers on a good night's sleep." Leon said leaving Wolf alone with his thoughts.

The large lupine leaned back in his seat with a heavy exhale; feeling something gnawing away at him.

"Trust your instincts, that's one thing they'll never show you at the flight academy." That was what James had told him the first time they had met.

He threw the Red Fang into auto pilot and closed his eyes, but with only the sound of his breathing around him he found it a bit aggravating to try and sleep. Opening his eyes and looking down, he opened chat to Billie's vessel; then he was greeted to her howling, God awful rendition of Whiter Shade of Pale. He smirked and leaned back closing his eyes; and then she just became white noise somewhere way off in the background, as she proceeded to do some air instrumentals mimicking the organ work.

Sometime after he had drifted off to sleep she killed her tunes and fell asleep curled up in a tight little ball on her side. Billie had a pleasant dreamless sleep, Wolf was not so fortunate.

* * *

As Wolf trotted along within himself; lost in the familiar caress of the blackness that seemed to corrupt whatever it touched in one way or another, he heard a sort of hum. A hum in a familiar voice; so familiar to him that he felt the sensation of Déjà Vu, yet he was positive he had never heard this before. As Wolf's feet carried him onward until he felt like he was walking in deep snow all he heard was the humming of the haunting melody. Hauntingly beautiful; as well as menacing, swimming through him as the shadow lace granted him a fuzzy picture of where he was.

There was snow, and a constant wind that he could see; but he did not feel cold. He did not hear the wind; there was an eerie silence that was simply filled by the melody. He stepped onto a stone walkway that led up to a peculiar jagged structure that was carved into the side of the mountain he was on. Wolf felt like a zombie, walking on not knowing where his feet were leading him, but he could not stop. He went on through the darkened hallways, passing by several guards armed with strange pure black spears. He stopped to look at one staring blankly forward at nothing, some sort of feline; but his eyes were the blackest shade of black Wolf had ever seen since Billie's.

Every guards eyes were the same, and they all wore the same black uniforms. They seemed to have no awareness of his presence as he turned a corner, not knowing where he was going; but wanting to go that way. It was as if something was pulling him in that direction. He looked around at the carved lines in the stone walls, something about this building wasn't right… it almost felt: alive. He came into a grand room, which had a glass ceiling to let in the pale moonlight; there was a large standing pool of water with a small figure hunched over next to it. Wolf walked slowly up to the child; who was hugging their knees to their face. It was a small child with white fur and very short black hair, as he drew closer, the kid almost looked like they were shaking.

Wolf could still only hear the humming of some feminine voice, but tried to speak… no sound came from him. He closed his mouth and his eyes grew wide when he looked at the blood trailing down the child's hands; it was their blood, their hands were bleeding. And then the kid looked up, Wolf took in the brown flares of fur, and the curve of the small face… it was Billie. A very young Billie; she was sobbing, Wolf could see the tears and her mouth moving like she was crying out loud but, all he heard was the humming. He looked down at her shaking hands, as the thick red blood still came from them like the striped wounds went deep, and his only thought was he wanted to leave. He did not wish to see this, he wanted to be somewhere far from this place he didn't care where.

He took one step backwards, and the humming stopped; replaced by the sound of the tapping on the back of his head. The clawed finger tapped away at his head. And he looked down at his reflection in the pool with a start: he was in his venom uniform. And he looked much younger; he wore his old black eye patch, had no beard; less muscle tone. He put a hand up to his eye, and felt the e-patch there on his face, but his reflection still showed the Wolf from those days. The tapping on his head became painful; he tried to put his hand down but felt a tug, he looked at the back of his hand, there was a wire piercing it.

Feeling his pulse rise in fear he looked up to see wires on him everywhere, he was a puppet on strings, and the puppeteer jeered down on him, some kind of jackal he had never seen before. A female grey jackal with piercing black eyes; grinned down on him with a hideous look. She pulled on the wires and made him look back down at the sobbing child; who was now a full grown Billie, also on wires staring down with a blank, lifeless expression.

"Stop…" He tried to say, but it was barley there.

"Stop what?!" Cried the jackal above in a thundering voice. "You're the one who has lead her to her fate."

The wires forced Wolf to look back at the reflection of his Venom self, and it looked back up at him with scorn.

"Terrible things you've done O'Donnell." His reflection said up to him. "Terrible things…"

Wolf's pulse was through the roof; for a moment he felt like he would faint as his heartbeat hammered in his ears.

"This isn't real…" He said quietly.

"Does the fact that you are dreaming make it any less real?" cried the voice of the jackal from above.

As her voice cackled on, Wolf felt like the back of his head had split open from the tapping finger on the back of his head; and let out a wail of pain:

"GAAAAHGH!" Wolf cried shooting his eyes open in the cockpit. He hyper ventilated and quickly undid his seats strap. Leaning forward he looked at the backs of his hands, and then felt the back of his head.

He was completely fine.

"What? All I said was that we are there." Leon's voice said, sounding a little weirded out.

"I told you, you talk to loud." Panther said in his velveteen voice.

"Where is Billie?" Wolf said still feeling shaken.

"She went on ahead while you were sleeping." Leon said.

Wolf looked down at the planet Katina, and pushed the dream to the back of his mind as his heart rate returned to normal.

"Are you alright?" Panther asked seeing Wolf rubbing his temples.

"Yeah… I'm just starvin' lets go." He said strapping himself in and leading their formation down through the atmosphere.

* * *

Even though there was an entire Cornerian military fleet posted on Katina; they took no notice of Star Wolf there in one of the lesser cities. The major cities of Katina had been hit just as hard by the Aparoid invasion as Corneria city had.

Katina itself was a strange planet, containing more land than ocean; most of it was desert, but the grassy plain areas near the coasts were home to a variety of smaller suburbs and cities. In one town the three Star Wolf members were able to refuel their ships, and themselves.

"The island Billie was bound for is in that direction." Wolf said looking out at the greenish sky standing proudly over the calm blanket of blue ocean.

His canines dug into a strip of jerky, and he decided to make contact with Billie on while the Wolfens were still refueling.

"You guys close yet?" was the voice he was greeted with instantly.

"Nearly there." He said right back.

"Good, cause this place is huge." She said circling the island in her baby.

"Think you can lay low till we arrive?" Wolf said looking at Leon and Panther arguing way over at the fuel pumps.

"No, it's a really small town. This guy probably already knows I'm here, and hey didn't we say we were gonna wing it?" Billie chimed landing her ship on a small rocky beach.

"Well…" Wolf wanted to argue, but if she got the jump on the guy, they could get there to back her up in mid battle. He stood there for what felt like a long time and thought;

"Trust your instincts." James had said.

"Stop treating her like she's made of glass." Leon had said.

His brain tried hard to formulate the correct answer.

Against all of his better instincts he said: "Why don't you see if you can get him alone?"

"As you wish; Billie out."

As soon as Wolf heard the cut off, his dream bubbled back to the surface and he looked out over the ocean.

'She's dealt with worse…' He assured himself. And she did have more experience with humans than anyone else on his team.

Wolf turned around to see Leon mocking Panther with his long tongue as the cat tried to ignore him.

"Alright you morons, get ready!" Wolf barked marching towards them.

* * *

Billie, sporting a pair of blue jeans and an oversized hoodie she had found in Wolf's things; trying to look more like a civilian, she trotted up the stony beach into the city. It looked like a smaller version of Corneria city that wasn't raised up from the plant life. She put her hood up enough to hide her hair but not her face; although Wolf seemed to never wear this article of clothing it held his scent in its stitches and she could take them in as she strolled along the streets. Looking like any other pedestrian.

With her red lens over her right eye, she followed the map of the city that showed where this Daniel human was hiding. She hoped this guy wasn't in the same league Samus was all those years back. But she had dealt with assassins before; they seemed to lose their edge when you surprised them instead of them surprising you.

"I know! That was one of the weirdest aliens I have ever seen!" Exclaimed a German shepherd to his bull dog friend on the street as Billie strolled on by.

She stopped in front of the block of condominiums, watching them from a distance, pointing their fingers up at the building and making strange faces. Then, very nonchalantly she made her way over to the outdated and aged looking structures; going down a grassy sort of alley way she found herself at the back of the structure. There was an old-fashioned fire escape webbing over the back of the building, and Billie felt the old thrill of the hunt kick in as she grabbed the ladder and climbed up.

"Could use a fresh coat of paint…" she mumbled looking at the peeling walls.

And then turning around and looking out at the ocean view that lay behind the structure she tugged her personal laser pistol out of its holster and crouched down low. Peeking into the first window… nobody home. She silently stepped forward and looked in the second window… a couple of rabbits sitting on a sofa watching television. Then she went up a story and looked in, low and behold; a very strange alien.

It was definitely the human she was sent here for, but not alone; he looked like he was talking with someone who she couldn't see, the spare seemed to be down a hallway. She ducked down very low; and very slowly she cracked the large window that seemed more like a door. As she continued to open it farther, she got an earful of the conversation.

"Look, I know I said I would come back and help you take on your old man; but you didn't tell me all of this crap!" Daniel shouted to the mystery guest.

Billie took aim at his head, after placing the barrel of her gun in the cracked window. But then heard a horrible, familiar voice… it hit her like nails across a chalk board.

"I know what I said; and my original offer was only to get you out here." Taylor said walking into view.

Billie froze, and stared on with wide eyes.

"I know for a fact my father has arranged a hit list of old enemies; I saw my Billie slut herself out just to get one… She did a damn good job of it too. And now it's only a matter of time before she comes looking for you." Taylor concluded.

"You knew? You bastard! You knew the entire time that your father was going to hire that Star Wolf skank! And you led me here; like an animal to slaughter." Daniel said outraged.

"Knew about it? I arranged for it… you think anyone knew that the Radical Billie Shade had joined Star Wolf? No, it was I who let my father in on the news; and he saw in his heart to accept me as his son once again." Taylor said revealing the crescendo of his little play.

Taylor then quickly reached up his bionic arm and grabbed Daniel by the throat. The human didn't see it coming; he grasped at the lynx's arm and writhed as Taylor spoke the last words the human would ever hear:

"And now that my guest of honor is here, you have outlived your usefulness to me."

Billie was still frozen as she heard a distinct pop, then the alien fell to the floor limp and lifeless.

"Ahhh Billie Shade…" Taylor said turning around. "I knew you would come alone… I just didn't think it would be this soon. I must say I was quite surprised. That O'Donnell mutt is really tripping over himself I suppose."

Billie slowly stood up, keeping her gun aimed on the cat.

"No, actually we knew this was some kind of trap from the start; Dexter has wanted me dead for years…" She said in a stony tone.

"Oh, but daddy isn't calling the shots today. In fact… I think he's going to die… right abooooout…" Taylor checked the time on his own headgear. "Now." He said.

Billie felt her heart sink down even farther.

"You see; with you here in my grasp, I had no further use for that tyrant." The lynx stared at her with yellow eyes… not eyes that were friendly and full of warmth like Panther's: but a pair of cold yellow eyes just like Dexter Tyson's.

"It was you… from the first moment…" Billie said, her ears drooping. "Ever since Leon shot your arm off!"

"Yup." Taylor said proud of his handy work. "And now, I have you all to myself, no Dexter, no target… no Wolf." He said outstretching his bionic arm.

"Didn't think you had it in you to play double agent…" Billie said. "But I know a hair brained imbecile like you didn't come up with all of this; who are you working for?"

"Oh, you'll see…" He said taking a fighting stance.

"The hell I will!" She said firing off five shots of hot plasma.

* * *

**Now, as I read through this for spelling errors, I saw that Wolf's freak out was a bit confusing. All I will tell you is that the humming was the lullubye that Billie used to hum to herself after she was seperated from her parents. That's all Wolf could hear there. Anyways; I would really like to know what you loved/hated in the reveiws today. Thanks for hanging in there and reading.**


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

Billie was shaking with fatigue; trying not to breathe loudly as she sucked in air behind a small building. She took off Wolf's jacket and took in one last whiff of his scent on it. And then with her last bit of energy she used her index finger to scribe a trail of shadow lace onto the ground. She folded up the hoodie and placed it neatly over the text. Then in her tight leather tank top she sucked in a large breath of courage and made a run for it.

She dared not look back at the city; even when she heard the smug cackling of Taylor behind her. Then suddenly she felt a sharp pain stab into her lower back, she was thrown off balance and fell hard on the stony beach, not three feet away from her ship. She rolled over and looked up at Taylor's frame standing over her, his lips were moving but everything sounded like it was too far away to make out. The last thing she saw as her vision blurred was the lynx bending down over her; then she black out.

* * *

"The distress signal came almost 20 minutes ago now Wolf, what if we…" Panther trailed off not wanting to consider what might be the truth for all they knew.

"What if what?!" Wolf snarled as they sped onward over the water.

Wolf stared Panther down like he was ready to throttle something… not necessarily his comrade.

"There's her ship!" Leon cried looking down over the stony beach as they came closer upon it.

"Well, it sure looks like she put up a fight…" Panther said as they looked at the damage done all over the small city. There were small fires, and people scattering everywhere, trying to get extra emergency services there from the mainland.

The three members of Star Wolf landed their ships on the rocky beach in a line next to Billie's. Wolf shot out of the Red Fang before the canopy had even opened completely and jogged towards her baby. He climbed up the wing and looked in her cockpit, praying to a God he had never really believed in before that she was in it somehow… She was not.

"Billie?!" He called trying for her headgear again, but still only got static.

"Goddamnit!" He spat jumping back down to the beach as Leon and Panther joined him.

"Maybe she's still at the building the target was hiding out in." Leon said quickly.

Wolf looked out at the path of destruction that lead into the small town and ran towards it, his teammates followed closely behind ready for anything still in there. Everywhere you turned, shops were wrecked; broken glass, things they had been selling scattered everywhere, even small fires that were burning with a weird greenish hue. Wolf recognized them as plasma residue. But he couldn't stop to look for long he had to keep running through the drones of people that cluttered the streets surveying the damage; she had to still be there… she had to.

"That's it up there." Panther said pointing to a smoking building.

"Is it on fire? I don't see any flames." Leon observed as they jogged close to it.

But Wolf recognized it instantly; it was the stain that large amounts of shadow lace left on the air temporarily. She had definitely been in there recently.

"Billie!" Wolf called kicking in the door to the main lobby.

It was vacant of anyone, the three ran upstairs kicking in apartment doors, but the place was abandoned. Finally, Leon kicked a door in that led to the right room.

"Wolf!" He called, down the hall.

Wolf and Panther rushed into the room, and joined Leon in staring down at the dead human crumpled over on the floor, with a look of horror stuck on his face.

"Well… she got the target…" Leon said with a hint of disappointment. "So who was she fighting through the town?" He finished looking to his boss.

Wolf had nothing to say… he looked around the room, taking every little thing in, then he walked over to the gigantic hole in the wall where the window had once been; looking down to the ground where the old fashioned fire escape had completely been separated from the building. He took a step backward and felt something under his boot. He lifted his foot up, and saw Billie's pistol; he recognized her handy work anywhere. He picked it up and checked the charge; it had definitely fired off a number of shots.

"Why would she fire off rounds…" Wolf said turning around. "If he was already dead."

Wolf bent down over the corpse; there was some nasty bruising around his neck: it was clearly broken, but he did not bear one laser wound on his body.

"She was right… he set us up." Wolf said standing up. "He just wanted to get Billie alone, to separate her from us."

After finishing the sentence and realizing he was the one who had probably sent her to her death, he stormed out of the building in a brooding mix of anger and self disgust. He stopped on the sidewalk outside of the building and felt the rage at himself build.

"Wolf what do we do?" Panther asked as Leon and himself joined their leader on in the street.

Wolf opened his mouth to speak, but then he overheard a German shepherd shouting to his friend across the street.

"Did you see where that hot chick in the baggy hoodie ran off to?" His friend asked him.

"Yeah man, she was totally checking me out before she went into the building with that alien; that's when I heard the explosion." He continued talking mostly with his hands about what had happened.

Wolf jogged across the street and grabbed him by his color; with one arm he lifted the horny mutt clean off of the ground and began interrogating him.

"You saw what happened in that building?!" Wolf shouted into his face.

"Hey let him go!" His friend tried to stop Wolf but Leon held up a knife to his throat stopping him in his tracks.

"Hey be cool guys." The shepherd said now looking very afraid.

"You may wish to begin speaking, the lupine there is having a bad day… and as for this reptile; he gets his rocks off slitting throats." Panther said smoothly looking to Wolf's hostage.

Leon jeered down a very creepy grin at the bulldog his knife was leaning on; the kid looked like he might crap himself as he said: "DUDE JUST TELL THEM WHAT YOU SAW!"

"O-OKAY, OKAY!" The shepherd said holding up his hands.

"Did you see the white Wolf in the large jacket?" Wolf barked up to him.

"Y-y-yeah man! We saw her; she walked up to right where we are standing now! Me and him were standing over there talking about the freaky alien that was in that building."

"Yeah! That's when that hot chick walked up!" The bulldog said in fear.

"Details! What happened!" Wolf yelled slamming him against the side of the building they were standing next to.

"She stopped…" He gasped getting air back into himself. "And looked at us talking; at first I thought she was checking me out, and then when we stopped talking she went behind the apartments."

"Yeah, we thought maybe she lived there you know?" The bulldog said up to Leon hoping he wouldn't slice him.

"Sounds like she was verifying the target was home." Leon said in Wolf's direction.

"Then?" Wolf hissed losing his patience.

"Then we waited over here, we thought maybe if we could get her coming back out I could get her number or whatever…" The shepherd laughed nervously and Wolf growled up at him and tightened his grip on the dog.

"That's when we heard the explosion!" The bulldog shouted.

"Yeah, all of this black smoke started coming out the building; and then there was a crash; and next thing we knew she came running out of there faster than anything I've ever seen. I thought maybe she was scared; but then this creepy guy with a big gun for an arm came running out after her."

"A gun for an arm?" Panther asked up to the dog.

"Yeah, he had this big shiny black gun where his left arm should have been, some kind of cat or something!" The bulldog said practically weeping.

"Was it a lynx with a large scar on his neck?" Wolf asked down to the bulldog while still holding the shepherd pinned up on the wall.

"Yeah! Then all of the people in that building started to evacuate and…" He then just gestured his arms out at all of the people everywhere, and the emergency services.

"**Taylor** set us up?" Leon asked in a high voice.

"Son of a bitch…" Wolf said under his breath. "What way did they run?" He asked the shepherd.

"Oh, come on I don't know…" He shrugged. "Just follow the destruction."

And with that Wolf dropped him to the ground with a hard thud. Leon put his knife away and Panther said:

"Thank you for your cooperation." And they ran off down the street.

They ran through a couple of blocks before they found where the real fight had taken place; down one street, several buildings were practically demolished. They slowly walked and looked at the wreckage in the streets; and the people trying to clean up their businesses.

"Wolf!" Leon shouted from where he was standing.

Wolf turned and looked at the chameleon pointing a long, spindly finger at the ground. His eyes followed the trail until he saw it; the headgear he had gotten for Billie, crushed lying on the ground among the broken glass. Wolf picked it up, and looked at the thick trail of dry blood caked dry over the lens. His mouth suddenly felt dry, and his throat scratchy like he just swallowed sawdust.

"That doesn't mean anything." Panther said looking at the technology.

Wolf closed his eyes trying not picture her dead in a gutter somewhere, and then he heard the rabble all around him.

"Did you see the weird black hands stretch through the air?"

"I heard they came from a person… they were terrifying."

"Looked like that witch was dueling the cyborg with her magic."

Wolf swallowed the lump on his throat down and continued down the path of destruction. Eventually the street they were on, led right back out to the beach; Billie must have been running back to her ship:

"But didn't make it…" Wolf said looking out at all four of their ships laying asleep on the beach below.

Wolf looked out at the greenish sky turning into a purplish orange all around them as the sun set. The wind from the ocean blew right through him to his core; and suddenly he felt cold. He clutched her headgear in his large shaking hand and looking over at the sun glaring off of her baby, pressed up against the blue waves he whispered out for no one to hear:

"Billie… I'm sorry; I just… wasn't quick enough." His eyes stung him like he was going to cry, but he did not… he looked up at the sky feeling like a helpless child once again and shouted out the rage he had at himself:

"Billie! … I'M SORRY!"

Billiiiieee… his voice echoed around the buildings around them in the stale orange glow.

Leon and Panther looked to one another in silence; having no idea what to say… Leon thought he would take a shot and see what happened:

"There was only one body back there; neither hers nor Taylor's. With no body there is no evidence she's dead." He said behind Wolf, who's mind was still a million miles away.

Wolf looked over to Leon who said something, but not in his own voice; it was the voice of James McCloud:

"That's your problem Wolf, that was always your problem."

"What did you just say?" Wolf said hostilely to his teammate.

"I said: we need a way to locate her… or her body." Leon said giving Wolf a weird look.

"Wolf, I know you are worried but get ahold of yourself, you are coming unglued." Panther said in a kind tone.

Wolf stood there and let the breeze lift up his limp tail and rush through his fur as he tried to find a solution… But there was no solution; Billie was gone, probably dead; and it was all because she was following his orders. The wind whipped quickly past his ears and he heard a voice on it.

'Wolf…' The voice echoed barley there. He looked over to the direction the wind was coming from, and caught a scent. He knew that light airy scent; it was Billie's. He walked right past Leon slowly following his nose; he sniffed lightly at the air and then turned a corner. Leon and Panther were following behind him now really worried about his state of mind. Wolf stopped at a fork in a cracked road with vegetation springing up here and there.

'This way…' the voice called along with the scent growing stronger. He came to the side of a warehouse near a dry dock.

'Here…" it said in his head as he looked at a black spot on the side of the warehouse. The wind stopped as his feet came to a stop over the hoodie she had taken from his drawer before they had left; it was folded neatly on the ground. He bent down and picked it up; there was blood dried into the stitching across the front. He gripped it tightly in his hands, then the black stain on the cement under it caught his attention just as Leon and Panther caught up with him.

He slowly bent down and stretched his left middle and index finger towards it, and then the three of them lurched backwards as it began to bleed out into the stone around it. It dribbled up the wall and formed itself into letters:

**THE CAGE**

Then, just as quickly as they had read it, it faded into the grey of the wall until it was completely gone. The three stood there for a moment all of their jaws agape.

"You two saw that right?" Wolf asked still staring at the wall.

"Uh-huh." They both nodded at the same time.

"That was not an illusion?" Wolf pressed.

"Nuh-uh." They replied.

Wolf started slowly nodding, and then he whipped around and faced his team.

"She's alive. And she's told us where Taylor has taken her." He said feeling his second wind coming on.

"Orders sir?" Leon said.

"We go get her, and I'm gonna take Taylor's fucking head off." He growled.

* * *

Billie slowly opened her eyes, her mind still felt fuzzy, and her head ached unbearably. She tried to stand up, but felt herself pulled back down; she was handcuffed to a steel chair.

"Sleeping beauty is awake." Taylor said in the darkness.

"Unfortunately…" She said not really wanting to be in his company.

"Well, you said you wanted to know the mastermind behind this plan; the thing is, I believe you two have already met." He said flipping the lights on.

Billie blinked and her eyes watered as they adjusted to the light. She looked around at the room; it looked like some sort of grimy old laboratory… Then she turned her gaze straight forward at a large tube in the center of the room; holding some kind of strange liquid; the torso and head of what looked like some medical experiment gone wrong. The figure looked like a naked woman, with some kind of metal helmet covering the top half of her face; then Billie's eyes widened in horror as it spoke in a familiar voice.

"It's been a long time my star pupil. Forgive me; I still have a little trouble keeping my form together in open air." Said what was left of her old headmaster.

"No…" Billie gasped almost crying.

"Yes." Taylor said into her ear. "Fact is, she has been watching you for quite some time… and we were brought together by what we want from you…"

Billie trembled like a frightened child, speechless she closed her eyes tightly.

"Go ahead; close your eyes and pretend it's a bad dream… That will solve nothing." Said what was left of the grey jackal in her tube of fescues material.

* * *

**CREEPIEST ENDING EVER. And for those of you who want to see the fight between Taylor and Billie; Don't bitch at me in your reviews, you will see it next chapter. Just thought it would be more interesting to leave you wanting more with that little tid bit of information. Hope you guys like cliff hangers...**

**Trying to give Wolf an emotion other than anger or sarcasm is a little challenging, do you think I captured it well?**


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

_**About 20 minutes earlier;**_

"It was you… from the first moment…" Billie said, her ears drooping. "Ever since Leon shot your arm off!"

"Yup." Taylor said proud of his handy work. "And now, I have you all to myself, no Dexter, no target… no Wolf." He said outstretching his bionic arm.

"Didn't think you had it in you to play double agent…" Billie said. "But I know a hair brained imbecile like you didn't come up with all of this; who are you working for?"

"Oh, you'll see…" He said taking a fighting stance.

"The hell I will!" She said firing off five shots of hot plasma.

Taylor moved with the precision of a trained soldier; the hot green shots of plasma from Billie's self made pistol burned into the wall behind him. Taylor made a running lunge at her from his spot crouched down on the floor, and she fired several more shots in his path; the sleek black metal of his left arm deflected them all around as he raised it to the side of his face. In that split second of him still coming at her she had to think fast. She dropped her gun and rose up her hands; then with a happy thought of the night Wolf and herself had howled up to the beautiful lively Fichinian sky, shadow lace flooded the room, making everything appear pitch black.

Taylor stopped in his tracks and tried to make something out, and Billie tiptoed over to the left out of his reach.

"Billie, what's the point of trying to run? We both know how this is going to end; so let's just skip the foreplay and get right down to it." He said closing his eyes and trying to listen for her breathing.

Holding her breath she slowly inched for the door, seeing through her own shadow lace was easy… except when she was sleeping with Wolf for some reason. She looked carefully at the floor sure not to trip or stumble on anything.

"Billie!?" Taylor yelled in frustration. "Since when do you run from a fight?! Rely on your precious team? The Billie I knew could fend for herself by herself!" He shouted in frustration, and still he heard nothing as she inched closer to the door; the fact she would not face him head on without that mutt there; made his blood boil.

"BILLIE!" He screamed as his arm folded out into the large barrel of a gun; when he began to shoot blindly forward, Billie made a run for the door under the cover of his screaming anger.

When she made it to the door she shot out of it like a cannon and jumped down the stairway three steps at a time. The shadow lace began to dissipate enough for him to see at the same time. He looked at the wall in front of him filled with hot burning holes; then the windowed wall and the entire fire escape outside began to creak. He scanned the room, not finding her anywhere and as he turned to the wide open door of the apartment; the wall along with the entire metal work of the fire escape fell backwards onto the ground outside with a loud bang.

Taylor angrily stormed out after her pushing through a panic of people evacuating the building. He saw Billie running through the lobby below and took several shots at her, she ran through the front door then he jumped all the way down to the lobby and chased after her.

Billie sucked in air as she ran down the street, and she flipped out her red lens selected the chat identification for Wolf's e-patch.

"Fight back damn you!" Taylor hissed when they were all the way down the street, and fired off a barrage of hot green plasma into the building she ran into. The ape who had been standing behind the counter ran out of a back door, Billie bent down behind the counter where he had been standing to avoid being shot.

"Wolf!" She quietly screamed into her head gear, but he hadn't picked up the chat line yet. 'How far away is he?' she thought.

"Billie…" Taylor said as his boots crunched over the broken glass of the shop. "Come out come ooooout…" His voice was like icy spears shooting into her ears as he kicked aside a sofa that had a green plasma fire burning it.

"Did you finish already?" Wolf's voice joked over the line.

"Wolf… he's here…" She whispered quickly.

"What? Billie what happened?" His voice sounded panicked suddenly.

"There you are!" Taylor said bending over the counter and grabbing the top of her head with his bionic arm.

"OH NOOO!" She screamed into the chat. "AAAAAAGH!" Was all Wolf heard as Taylor lifted her up to her feet and squeezed her head tightly with his metal hand.

"BILLIE?" Wolf called over the line; then he heard a popping noise, and only static followed.

"STOOOOP!" She yelled as his metal fingers dug into her scalp. Blood streamed down over her crushed head gear as Taylor spoke:

"Stop what? I'm not doing this... YOU ARE. Calling for your mutt instead of facing me head on." He sounded disgusted with her behavior.

But Billie just wanted to be away from him; this was the danger; the danger her instincts had told her was just around the corner and she had walked right into it against all of her better judgment. Then, something happened inside of Billie; she got angry at Taylor… and when a Shadow Legion got emotional, things tended to get ugly quick, fast and in a hurry.

"You… BASTARD." She spat at his scowling face, glaring down at him with a solid pair of black eyes.

And in the blur of the next moment she sent her striped fists into his chest; using the energy of her shadow lace to cause a sort of booming effect that knocked the air out of him causing his grip to loosen. She fell to her feet and turned to run out of the back door; but he sent his right arm towards her head, snatching at her hair, he pulled some of it out of its braid and grasped only her broken head gear as she bolted out of the back door.

"Where is your Star Wolf now..?" Taylor gasped walking to the door and watching her run down the street.

He looked down at the tech he had crushed and threw it into the panicked mob of people. Then he turned his gaze to where he last saw her; assuming she was still running but she was standing there, her black eyes filled with rage and a cloud of the shadow lace swirling around each of her hands.

"Finally accepted your fate, have you?" Taylor scoffed with a slight chuckle.

"No… I'm going to send you to yours!" She said charging at him.

But he saw right through her; she was still biding her time until that mongrel showed up; he knew he had to work fast now if he was going to get her out of here in time. So he decided to just go for it, and ran right back at her extending his bionic arm into its gun barrel.

They both raised their arms; Taylor's left gun of an arm, and Billie's right fist shrouded in a hard cover of the shade. Their fists met as Taylor fired the gun, and the resulting explosion of shadow lace and hot plasma whooshed through the deserted street that the people had evacuated by this time. Shattering windows and tearing through the walls closest to them like tissue paper.

After the dust began to settle the two were still standing there, Taylor was taken for a surprise as he saw her shadow lace spreading down her arms engulfing her in the void of black armor. He tried to punch her with his other fist, but without her even flinching a tendril of the shade grabbed his right arm and twisted until he was sure the shoulder came out of the socket with the pop he heard. He yelped and then gritted his teeth in pain, then he looked and now her entire face was covered by the lace; she looked like some sort of creepy blank doll. And then in one smooth motion she separated her right fist from is bionic arm and sent a clawed, black hand right into his chest. He screamed out to the sky in an immense amount of pain as his blood rushed out from the energy of the impact covering the front of Billie, including the Wolf's hoodie.

Then using two large hands of shadow lace she grasped the dazed lynx and threw him through the door of a building to the side. The lace disappeared leaving its stains in the air as she felt her energy fading.

"I'm… not going to be able to keep this up…" She gasped through deep breaths as she looked down at her striped hands; the stripes were thick now and she could feel the burning sensation setting into the skin under them that came from over exertion.

She heard a groan and wood being kicked aside; she looked back up at Taylor standing in the door.

"You gota be shitting me…" she said under her breath.

"That's it?" Taylor called over tearing his bloody shirt off of his toned body. "After all this time that's all you have?!" he said through some heavy breaths.

When he threw the grey, bloodied shirt to the ground she looked at where his bionic arm was attached; digging into his shoulder. It almost looked like it had been welded onto him since there was no fur near that area just burn scars; but she remembered Leon had used hot plasma to shoot it off.

"You are going to have to come up with some new tricks…" He said grasping his right arm and popping the joint back in with a scream of pain.

Billie struck her fighting stance when she saw the loss of blood all over Taylor's torso didn't seem to be fazing him much.

"Now you come to The Cage…" He said aiming his bionic arm at her and watching the fingers of it bend back into a gun barrel.

"The Cage? What's there? You just want to take me hostage?" She asked trying to figure out his angle.

"Oh nothing much now… not since the Aparoid incident… You'll be the only guest I have to play with…" He said with a cold gaze that reminded her of Dexter.

"Fuck you…" she said returning a harsh gaze right to him… for some reason that seemed to set him off into another bout of rage.

He let out a barrage of fire from his gun of an arm and she bolted farther down the street. Taylor began laughing behind her in a way crazy people did when they had the upper hand.

"Where will you go?! Look around Billie, we are on an island!" He cackled behind her, hunting her down.

Billie turned a variety of corners trying to maze herself around… but Taylor was right; all ways led to the ocean.

'I'm not getting out of this…' she thought as she slid down the wall of a small warehouse building near a dry dock. And the bitter irony was; she was within eyeshot of her baby out on the rocky beach. But Taylor had crushed her headgear, she would have to get into her baby manually… there was just no way. She sat there defeated; listening to Taylor on his rampage:

"Billie?!" Boom went another building as he shot through, looking through every nook and cranny for her.

'Wolf… I could wait Taylor out.' She thought trying to quiet her breathing as she heard more of Taylor's crazed laughter.

'But we need to know who is behind this… and if I have to put you through hell to do it…' She took a gulp. 'I'm sorry Wolf.' She finished knowing full well she would probably die before he got to Corneria to get her.

But it was Billie who had brought this plague down on him and his team; simply from her presence… This is why she hadn't joined Star Fox… But a horrible fate had met James anyways. She would be damned if she saw it happen twice.

She took off her hoodie revealing her tight leather tank top, that offered a small amount of armor across the front; but not much; it fit like a corset to her body which is why she had paired it with something baggy. She took one last whiff of Wolf's scent off of the hoodie; tears stung at her eyes as she guessed it would be her last.

Then as she heard Taylor's explosions growing closer she scribed her chosen letters with shadow lace and scattered them. It was a trick they taught young Legion way back in her first days at the academy, a message that could only be seen when the chosen individual from the consciousness of the Legion who scribed it was close to it, a simple trick really. So long as the individual it was indented for wanted to find it; they always would, how exactly, something about relative consciousness that she didn't remember. She prayed he would find it under his hoodie as she neatly folded it and set it over the black stain.

She sucked in a deep breath, and not worrying about actually making it away; she bolted in the direction of her baby. 'Wolf… It's back there.' She thought as she ran. To her the last few moments happened in slow motion: she ran down the rocky beach focused on her ship. Taylor laughed manically behind her as a shaft on the lower half of his bionic arm opened revealing a long dart; with a sedative made just for her in it. When he had a clear shot it fired off, zooming through the air it pierced the flesh near her spine, and she writhed in the air not three feet from her ship. And with a pain filled thud; landed on the rocks of the beach.

Time came back in when Taylor stood over her and spoke the words she could not hear:

"Where is that mutt now? He's too late, that's where." He said triumphantly.

"I love it when I win." He said with an unsettling toothy smile as he leaned down to pick her up.

About five minutes later Wolf arrived… too late.

* * *

"Go ahead; close your eyes and pretend it's a bad dream… That will solve nothing." The headmaster said in her tube looking like she had been torn to pieces some time in the past.

Billie opened her eyes to once again take in the horrible sight; the naked torso looked fine itself, but where arms and legs and even a tail once were, now there was only shredded flesh with messes of tubes sticking out of her back and out of the metal covering her head. It was a strange metal helmet with the words,

SHADOW LEGION SAMPLE 1.

carved into it. There was a black slit across where Billie guessed her eyes were.

"How the blazes did you get off of Esreia before it was destroyed?" Billie asked as Taylor stepped up besides the tube checking life sign monitors.

"Funny, I was going to ask you the same question." Said the headmistress in the creepy monotone from Billie's childhood that used to haunt her dreams.

* * *

**I had intended this chapter to be longer, but since we are winding down to the last couple of chapters I figured may as well just fit the entire conclusion of the story into the next one or two chapters (I'm not sure how many there will be yet) But they will tie up pretty much every loose end. The old villain revealing their evil plot deal and all of that. Keep an eye on my page as the single shot story Perfect Strangers is nearling it's final draft; if you are a fan of this story and these characters you will want to read it. And since the story is nearing its end... I WANT AN INSANE AMOUNT OF REVIEWS. LET'S MURDER THIS BITCH WITH REVIEWS! **


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

"How the blazes did you get off of Esreia before it was destroyed?" Billie asked as Taylor stepped up besides the tube checking life sign monitors.

"Funny, I was going to ask you the same question." Said the headmistress in the creepy monotone from Billie's childhood that used to haunt her dreams.

Billie sat in her chair trying to be brave; but being faced down with the childhood trauma that she never did take the time to get over cut through her like a hot knife through butter. Taylor looked at Billie's big black eyes staring onward in horror, and her lower lip trembling and bent his pointed ears back.

"You at least owe her explanation." He loudly whispered to the torso in the jar.

Billie's eyes darted over to him for a minute; surprised at how little ice there was in his tone then she gazed back at the broken jackal while she felt her heart rate picking up in a child like fear.

"One lesson you never did learn… The actions of one Legion can affect the many." The headmistress's lips moved and bubbles arose from the edge of her mouth as she relayed her tale:

"It was a few weeks after your greatest show of power… when you broke away from the moon and onto the Esreian surface. I did not chase you, simply because I could not… in 1,000 years even I couldn't muster that sort of energy. I spent hours and hours combing through the towers of the academy; tearing through the library for any manner of reference to such a thing."

She paused and looked at Billie through her glass prison.

"And to this day, it eludes me. But not too soon after your disappearance, things began to fall apart there; in my home, you kicked in the front door to my house number three."

That name made Billie cringe and shift around in her seat.

"Younger Legion began to question my authority… even some of the older students. They began jabbering on about how they wished to leave… how it wasn't fair. All of the lessons I distilled in them, gone with one swoop of one Legion. Then the civil war broke out between all of our brother and sister Legion… All of them fueled by rage instead of keeping level heads. I left soon after they had all destroyed themselves. Intent on finding the one responsible… the girl who could not be broken indeed… Ahhh, number three; you were always difficult to break."

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Billie spat. She had been called number three for so many years she had forgotten her real name; number three was like a slave name to her.

"But by the time I found out where you had gone… You. Weren't. There… Just that old cyborg."

"Devin?" Billie cried out in shock. "What did you do to him?!"

"It was the strangest thing… he almost seemed to know I was coming… or at least the civil war that had pressed to his doorstep by then. I demanded to know where he had sent you, and he denied knowing you at all. Not even after I began to pull his body apart…"

"Shut up!" Billie said in a shaky voice beginning to weep.

"Even when I set his little workshop ablaze and watched his metal parts sear his at his flesh… he still denied knowing you."

"Shut up…!"

"But he did give me one thing in death… blueprints for his fantastic mechanics…" The jackal concluded looking at Taylor's left arm.

"All I had to do was tweak my own power… and viola."

"SHUT UP… SHUT UP!" Billie yelled through her tears as her shadow lace broke several monitors and the top of the tank, causing a slow leak.

"And then…" The jackal continued like she hadn't been interrupted. "As Esreia began to dissolve over the next few weeks… quite literally… I fashioned myself some gear; by removing my own limbs and replacing them with the black lace tech, I was finally able to achieve what you had those years ago, to fly through the void of space."

Billie sat quietly sobbing; at the hell she had brought onto Devin, he knew… he always knew that would happen by having her around. And still he elected to make sure she got to safety. Taylor looked at her with winced yellow eyes, then over at the equipment she had destroyed.

"Another lesson you never learned; always keep your emotions in check." Said the jackal in the leaking tube with perfect composure.

"As I chased the echo that you let off, as the last Legion other than myself in the galaxy… I met someone rather unusual. The people of Lylat called him Andross… He was quite fascinated by our people. The capabilities locked in our DNA. I spent the next few decades on Venom… thinking I was a guest, as it turns out, I was a prisoner."

Billie's eyes darted up at the mention of Venom.

"And now, you see what is left of me number three… Andross removed some of my brain tissue, spinal fluid; even my eyes. All in the name of his research. To make himself live forever. Now; I cannot even walk about in the open air. Even with my old bionic limbs. All because I could never quite manage to catch up with you…"

"But… how did you meet Taylor Tyson there?" Billie scowled over to the lynx who was putting some kind of putty over the leak.

"It seems that you cast quite a spell over this one…" The head in the tubed helmet looked over to Taylor who looked at the ground, electing not to meet anyone's gaze.

"Not to mention the spare…" Her creepy voice rung out from a cluster of bubbles.

"What does Wolf have to do with this?" Billie protested pulling at the cuffs holding her arms to the handles of the chair.

"He loves you. Although he has never said it out loud… and you love him." Taylor made an angry face at those words.

"Oh what, have you had Taylor spying on us?" Billie looked over to the lynx with scorn.

"No, no I have seen plenty on my own… you shouldn't have slept with him." She finished.

"How did you…" Billie started… but stopped when she saw the unsettling smile come across the jackal's teeth.

"Oh dear… we are in trouble…" She cackled out through a mass of bubbles.

* * *

Wolf looked at his radar; Billie's ship was following his own through space thanks to the auto-pilot feature Billie had given his e-patch in Sargasso. That all seemed so long ago now, everything had so much promise back in those moments. He let out a sigh and closed his plasma proofed vest up over his black tee. Before they had gotten on route for Corneria Wolf had taken the liberty of arming his person to the teeth, literally; if he had to bite Taylor's neck out he would. But he was going to storm that prison, not caring if he lived or died at this point: but Billie had better still be alive.

"So, not to rain on your crazy parade… but Panther is wondering if winging it once again is a good idea…"

"We aren't winging it; I have a plan." Wolf gruffed all business.

"So, we are pulling a Corneria city then?" Leon asked.

"Yup."

"What's a Corneria city?" Panther asked confused.

"That mission me and Wolf did on Katina before you joined us…"

"Then why don't you call it a Katina?"

"We thought we were on Corneria!" Wolf snapped. "Just follow my lead." Wolf finished as they pressed on through hyperspace.

He looked at Billie's crushed headgear sitting in a small compartment on his dash; he gripped his wheel tightly thinking about how much pain he was going to inflict on Taylor. But more than that; he was going to find her alive.

* * *

"You were right you know. When you felt things weren't right: you should have followed your instincts." She said as Taylor pushed Billie's chair closer towards her tube.

"How do you know all of this stuff? About Wolf; what else do you know?"

"Well… something else you didn't stick around long enough to learn is; all Legion were connected on small levels… because of our nature. Something Andross's experimentation brought out in me. When I lacked the ability to leave this tube, I stayed still day after day, watching him build his empire, and yet I could still feel my shadow lace coursing through me: giving me its energy. So I decided to reach out, beyond what I was capable of physically; and then I finally found you.

"I decided to keep quiet; you didn't even know I was there… I didn't even think there was anything I could do beyond sensing your presence a solar system away… Until one day I decided to speak."

"It **was** you… I wasn't going crazy hearing your voice in my head! You were really there!" Billie cried with sudden realization.

"Yeeeeees… I decided that as long as I could reach you from my boring cell, that I could fill my day by trying to continue your lessons. But I only seemed to have influence when you used your shadow lace directly. And then that meddlesome James showed up."

Billie's eyes widened.

"Always trying to get you out of your head, always trying to help you in this way or that… he had to go… And then when I finally almost had you broken at last; O'Donnell showed up. And once again you recovered…"

"So… the strange thoughts… the illusions; the racing thoughts. IT WAS ALL YOU?"

"No. Illusions and voices I take credit for. But the racing thoughts and paranoid feelings… that was all you number three."

"What did you do to James?!" Billie called out through fresh tears.

"Nothing… That was all Andross… although I did suggest he send that double agent Pigma in there to gain the fools trust, and if I'm not mistaken your current lover was at the final execution." The headmistress trailed off for a moment.

"You shouldn't have slept with him, I did manage to get into his head after that; you quite literally rubbed off on him in a way I never thought possible. So Taylor suggested I drive a wedge between the two of you, and eventually it caused you to drive him away from your own paranoia; just like with James... Then when you learned of James's death I thought I nearly had you."

"So… this whole time, you have just been trying to break me?"

"It's all I have left number three…the age of the Shadow Legion is over, the gift dies with us." Said the jackal in her monotone way.

"But the Venom empire came crashing down; and a whole new wave of organized crime swept through this star system, led by one Dexter Tyson; I watched from my abandoned cage on Venom as you took in his men, excellent work number three." The headmistress cooed, admiring Billie's strength.

"And then this boy showed up… I saw him take fancy to you on the night you saved him." The jackal looked over at the lynx who was staring down at Billie.

"What do you want from me you old hag." Billie said faking some bravado.

"Me and her both wanted the same thing Billie…" Taylor said. "To drive a wedge between you and that mutt."

"Why? What are you getting out of this Taylor?!"

Taylor looked down with a frown on his face, then at the headmistress.

"Did you wonder why he opened this prison number three?"

"You said you would drive a wedge between them already!" Taylor whispered very loudly.

"Because when I contacted him after you left him prison to rot; I told him where to find me." The jackal said ignoring him.

"I told him to come and get me; to bring me fresh meat to experiment on; I told him all about you and your past. When you organized that little swap and bust with Wolf, I then neglected to inform him of the danger. And then he lost his arm, I don't think he ever forgave me for that… but I fixed him with a shadow lace biotech arm, Just like new.'

The tone she spoke with now made Billie shudder at her own memories of the torture.

"So this whole time… you two have been running this place; specifically to find people I had brought down?" Billie asked.

Taylor nodded; "Did you think, I would really go back to my filthy father's line of work after how he abandoned me to the first bounty hunter that came along." He said with a shaking voice.

"NO!" He slapped his palms down of Billie's arms and looked at her right in the face. "He got what he deserved, and once she's done with you…"

Billie backed up her head as much as possible from his crazed face.

"So you can only infiltrate the minds and memories of people who have had prolonged exposure to another Legions shadow lace?"

"Very observant number three… I promised him, once I had broken you; he could have you." She said with a shrug.

"You also said you would make her hate Wolf!" Taylor spat turning around. He was losing it, his cool and his killer edge and Billie could tell; whatever the mistress had told him or promised him she was making him just as crazy as she used to make her students.

"I showed her the necessary memory."

"So, that was real?" Billie asked.

"Indeed. When you slept with Wolf, you opened him up to my influence… and Taylor had me play with his sanity for laughs but… he was, difficult… to breach."

"What do you mean?"

"He… his subconscious self found ways to elude me… To snap himself out of the illusions I set up for him. But I did get to look around at his memories… very touching; when he told you of how he lost his eye. But, he didn't tell you everything." She said through a creepy grin.

"I will still break her…" The jackal said to Taylor as he backed away from her… "Just give me some time." And with that Taylor left the room, and Billie was left alone with her personal demon.

The room around her became dark, she felt like she was dozing off; she tried to fight it and to protest, but she couldn't speak. She looked around through the darkness and the jackal was gone, she was no longer cuffed to a chair.

And then all at once she was standing on a sunny city street. She practically leaped backwards when she saw a younger looking Wolf walking towards her, like she had never seen him before. He was in a Corneian flight academy uniform and he looked very clean cut. Not to mention both of his eyes were intact.

"Great…" Billie mumbled. "Now I get to see more depressing memories."

"The contact said this is the place…" Wolf mumbled to himself, Billie looked at him, he looked nervous. She had never seen him look nervous about anything before.

He sucked in a deep breath and walked up a flight of stairs, Billie followed not really wanting to… but she was still curious about what was going on. She followed him through the crappy looking apartments until he arrived at a door on the second floor; the balcony overlooked a grimy looking ship lot that looked seldom used. And Wolf knocked on the door. A rumble of noises that sounded like empty cans came from within and the door opened to reveal a wolf the same height and color as Wolf; even the same narrow eyes although they were a chestnut color not violet. However he looked much older, and fatter, and smelled of booze as he spoke with an eerily familiar gruff tone.

"What do yah want?"

Wolf stood there staring for a second, then caught himself; "Are you Walter O'Donnell?"

"Who wants to know?"

"I'm your… is Patricia O'Donnell here?" Wolf asked looking in.

"Pfft… haven't seen that bitch since she ran off with the kid…" The man said dismissively.

"Do you know where she went?" Wolf asked quickly.

"No, and I don't much care for…" The man started to yell, but then caught a glimpse of Wolf's golden pendant.

"Where did you get that?" He asked taking a step out, then he stopped and really took in Wolf's face: "What the hell do you want boy?" His voice turned steely.

Wolf clenched his fists and put on the war face Billie could spot a mile away: "Where. Is. My mother?" He said with a voice like ice.

"I told you I don't know! I took a beating to your ass one night for being a little smart mouth and she ran off with you, said I didn't deserve to be a father; that bitch!" As soon as Walter finished Wolf seized him by the throat and slammed him to the wall inside.

"She dropped me off at an orphanage after one of your drunken escapades, then left; WHERE DID SHE GO?" Wolf yelled enraged at the man.

"I don't remember I was hammered!" He coughed through Wolf's grip.

"You had better start remembering in a hurry." Wolf said through bared teeth.

"I know you just got out of prison for something…" Wolf hissed digging his nails into Walter's flesh.

"Ouuuuch!" He howled. "What do you want me to say?! I killed the bitch? Yeah, I killed the bitch. And good riddance to you yah little smart ass; she walked out on me! Then she dumped you in some orphanage; I didn't mean to kill her, I just started hitting her, she was so fragile, just couldn't hack it. I turned myself in I did my time. And that bitch deserved it! She left us!"

"You… unimaginable BASTARD!" Wolf shouted.

"This is the good part…" Said the voice of the headmistress, as Billie watched Wolf fly into a rage and start beating the man with his fists.

She covered her mouth and tried to shrink back as Wolf kept shouting at him, calling him an animal, a bastard; a variety of things she could make out. More and more blood came up on Wolf's fists each time, until Walter's face was no longer recognizable, his teeth and muzzle were sunken in and he tried to raise a hand to defend himself but Wolf beat it out of the way until the bloody heap under him no longer moved.

Wolf stopped and hyper ventilated over the body… he looked up and caught a dated picture of his mother on the wall; tears broke down Billie's face as she looked at the hurt desperate look on Wolf's. Wolf looked at the blood all over his hands. Then he closed his eyes and screamed up to the air, Billie could make out tears trailing into his fur, and she felt like she could vomit.

The scene faded to black all around her, shadow lace whizzing by like wind as she heard the jackal's voice:

"That was his first time killing someone." She said as another scene rushed back in; "and this is how he really lost his eye…"

Billie looked at where she was, it was dark out and Wolf was walking out of the flight academy's main gate in street clothes with a large bag over his shoulder.

"There you are." Said the voice of James McCloud.

Wolf turned around and looked at the fox in his cheap shades.

"I can't let you go Wolf." James said shaking his head.

"What are you going to do to stop me?" Wolf said to the man who had become like his father; not his real good for nothing father he killed yesterday.

"I know what you have been up to Wolf; I know you were using the Star Fox account in the underground black-market to locate your old man." James said with sympathy in his voice.

"You don't know shit McCloud." Wolf said turning back around.

"Please come quietly." James said taking out his blaster.

"I can have your sentence reduced. I know you didn't mean to kill him."

"So words out already?" Wolf said dropping his bag and turning around.

"I told the cops to keep it hush, hush until I could speak with you; we all know what he did. I know how you must have been feeling…" James said slowly approaching his student.

"NO, you don't understand!" Wolf hissed in a loud whisper. "No one can understand! I'm leaving James, I can't stand this planet anymore."

"Where will you go?" James said in a tone parents often used on teenagers.

"I'm forming my own team, like you did. I can still be a pilot even if I have to do a few crap jobs first." The young Wolf said in his naivety.

"Wolf, you can't run away from this… I have to bring you in." James said with remorse pointing his blaster up.

"Fuck, that!" Wolf said charging James with his claws outstretched.

James waited for him to be close, and didn't bother charging up his blaster, in all honesty he didn't want to hurt Wolf; just make him see reason. In the next moment, Billie looked away; she heard the shot, then she heard Wolf scream. She quickly looked back up when she heard running steps; Wolf ran by scooping up his bag in one hand and clutching his burning eye with the other.

"Wolf stop!" James called after him running up to where Billie was standing.

"You'll get yours McCloud! You are going to get yours!" Billie watched in that moment as the younger naïve Wolf died, and was replaced by the angry gruff mercenary she knew today.

James rose up his blaster and pointed it right at Wolf's back as he ran away… he had a clear shot:

"Damnit…" he mumbled and put his blaster down to his side as he watched his young apprentice flee into the darkness.

Then everything went into the darkness…

* * *

"Looks like the Aparoids conveniently missed this place…" Panther said looking down at the prison.

The Cage looked untouched; the sinister building brooding over the jungle, as if it had been carved from volcanic rock. Some sort of horrible blackened tribute to the triumph of everything artificial over nature. Or perhaps a tribute to everything disgusting that those pushed to the edge could do upon being provoked.

"Okay…" Wolf said arranging the auto-pilot on his e-patch as he flew over the prison. "Let's do this." He finished un-strapping himself.

He flew his Wolfen upside-down over the prison and launched himself out with a kick as his canopy opened; his vessel with Billie's close behind it flew off into the distance. And as he fell through the air he pulled two machine guns from their straps around his back then landed on the soft soil just inside of the outer fence with a plop.

All of the guards began running to his position as he looked up with a fierce rage in his eye. And as they took aim at him, Leon and Panthers shots came from above thinning the crowd all around him and taking out the guards in the towers looming over him. He pointed his own guns forward and made a bloody path for himself; the bullets tore through the flesh of all in his path as he slowly marched forward.

"Is that it?" He gruffed looking around at the carnage.

He dropped the magazines for his guns and replaced them with fresh ones as he came up to the large front door; taking a look down at the electronic lock he proceeded to shoot it out.

"You two patrol the area for stragglers. I'm heading in." He said dropping his weapons and reaching for his grenades.

"Be careful…" Leon said over through his e-patch.

Wolf trotted into the building, there were about three guards standing in wait after hearing the commotion outside; Wolf leaned against the wall so they couldn't see him and rolled two grenades into the small area.

"Grenades!" Was all they shouted before the explosions.

Once the dust settled Wolf walked in and looked at the charred limbs everywhere. As well as the bared door that had once been there laying way back in the hallway. He walked into the prison wielding his own and Billie's personal blaster; he looked up at the security camera and shot it out. He repeated this as he came into the large grey room that held the cells. He looked around; the place looked abandoned. No prisoners but more importantly:

"Where are all of the guards?" He said looking around.

"Well done…" Said a familiar voice as all of the lights began to dim.

"You…" He said turning around to see the jackal that had haunted him before.

"You're the headmistress Billie mentioned aren't you?" He said finally understanding.

"My, you're perceptive…" She said walking towards him on the floor below as everything got dark with shadow lace; but this lace was not warm and inviting like Billie's.

It was cold… like death.

* * *

**Damn that was a long chapter; had to cut it short my duckies. And i'm thinking there might be 21 chapters... maybe. I'll see how long i feel chapter 20 needs to be. **

**Also something I felt as I was writing; do you feel I have taken this story too far away from the true Star Fox style? Or do you like it being centered around Billie for this piece? The third portion of this trilogy I can see now will definitely be more centered around Fox, and Wolf's rivalry. Well hope you enjoyed the reveal of this chapter. Next one will be up pronto.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Well, next chapter is the last one and there really isn't much to say aside from the fact that I love being critiqued. Old artists habit, so anything you guys want to see in the final installment; or if you just want to ask a stupid question feel free. Next chapter should be live very soon.**

* * *

CHAPTER 20

"You're the headmistress Billie mentioned aren't you?" He said finally understanding.

"My, you're perceptive…" She said walking towards him on the floor below as everything got dark with shadow lace; but this lace was not warm and inviting like Billie's.

It was cold… like death.

"You look like you were expecting me…" Wolf said holding his pistols straight out at the figure walking up the stairs.

Now perfectly level with him in the darkness she spoke:

"Looks like I'm going to have to break you first."

Wolf immediately took a number of shots at her; but stopped as she faded into the black. He was totally surrounded by it, could see nothing in any direction but pitch blackness.

"Not now…" He said under his breath… the realization came upon him.

"It was you; you were the one screwing around in me and Billie's heads!" He shouted into the dark.

"Ahh, so you aren't just a pretty face…" She said from under him.

Wolf looked down at the floor he was standing on, where each of his feet was planted sent out a ripple effect into the blackness, like he was walking on water. He looked down at the jackal looking back up at him where his own reflection should have been.

"Now where did we leave off?" she said with a sinister grin.

Wolf pointed his guns down at her; but in that very instant he sunk down into the black. He tried to swim through but felt the sensation of water being pushed down into his lungs. He felt paralyzed; unable to move anything at all, then suddenly pictures started flashing over his eyes, accompanied by voices.

Hallucinations he had seen before; himself in his venom uniform screaming at James in his cell, watching James be executed at the hands of that nut Andross; having to listen to the screams pound in his head. His own screams, as he watched himself kill for the first time; kill the man his mother had given her life for so that Wolf would never have to call him father. All while the crushing blackness pushed down on him, but he stayed there, unable to move, unable to drown.

Then another of his memories whizzed by: Billie sitting on her ships wing speaking in an echoed voice:

"I just, feel like something really bad is waiting just around the bend…" Then she was gone. Replaced by the voice of the headmistress:

"I have delved into all of your memories! And yet you always manage to slip away right before I can break you!" She hissed like some vile demonic presence.

Then she appeared before him shrouded in the shadow lace like he had seen Billie do so many times before. Wolf no longer felt like he was in water but he did feel her wrap her hands around his throat.

"What is it that you have in there that allows you to allude me?! WHAT?!"

Then right on time Wolf felt the tap, tap on the back of his head; very dull though barley there. Then another memory whizzed by just a voice.

"That your problem Wolf…" James's voice echoed.

And then a familiar sight cast light down on them; Billie, not her but she once again looked like the moon. The gentle silver light elegantly dancing off of the humanoid casting out the dark he seemed to be trapped in. The moon… he had always been so obsessed with the moon; now he was going to die without ever finding out why. What primal tendency made him that way. And with that thought the tapping became unbearable on the back of his head, but he was still being strangled by the headmistress to the point where he was seeing red spots.

"I know how to break you once and for all…" She hissed letting him go, to gag for air on all fours. His vision returned to normal as the figure of Billie shattered above head; raining down little shards over his body. He heard whispers he couldn't make out coming from them. Then he looked up and saw the real Billie; dead in front of him; her hair and eyes were pure white, as if the blackness of her life energy had been sucked away. Wolf shuttered suddenly feeling like a helpless child.

This couldn't be real, there was no way; he could not have been late, he had to save her. But the corpse stared back at him with its listless eyes and agape mouth; as if to ask, 'why didn't you save me? You are rotting to the core Wolf, such terrible things happen to everyone around you'. Those whispers became real in his head

He gripped his head trying to make it stop, trying to make the corpse go away. But closing his eyes to make it disappear solved nothing; he saw it pressed up against his eyelids.

"You led her to her fate Wolf!" Cackled that jackal's voice in his head like some old forgotten god of death.

The tapping on the back of his head began to make him want to scream more than the vision:

"WHAT IS THAT?!" He cried out turning around, and for the first time he saw who had been responsible the entire time: himself.

Wolf stumbled backwards looking up at a more bestial version of himself; with both eyes intact, burning a rage filled yellow.

"Now that I have your attention." It said to him in a cool voice. "GET UP." It said and Wolf blinked his eyes open, drenched in sweat.

He looked around at the room full of cells he was in; he had not moved an inch aside from dropping to his hands and knees.

"HOW?" cried the jackal standing across from him.

"It wasn't me you couldn't fool with your hocus pocus…" Wolf mumbled picking up his and Billie's guns.

"It was the animal within me; the rage fueled moon gazer who lives to fight!" He said picking himself up now feeling light as air.

The canine stood staring at him in shock.

"And it looks like you're gonna have tuh come up with some new tricks." He said dismissing her from his mind's eye. The specter before him faded into nothing; leaving only the stain shadow lace left on the air.

He heard explosions breaking out of the sky outside, Leon and Panther no doubt. He gripped his guns and kept moving downward.

* * *

Down in her tube she swore out through a large cluster of bubbles.

"I cannot break him!"

"He's here?" Taylor asked nervously. "How?"

"I don't know…" Said the jackal; shaken for the first time in her life. "But he's coming for her."

Taylor bent his ears back in rage and stormed out of the room. He made his way to the solitary cell he had thrown Billie into for her nap after the headmistress had toyed with her mind.

Billie sat awake in her cell; leaning her elbow on her knee and her face on her palm. She stared off blankly into space; determined to ignore the two of them until Wolf came for her; he would come for her, she hoped. But she had no energy left to speak of; her once elegant braid was now a matted mess all around her head with sweat and blood. Even though she had been asleep she had deep rings under her eyes, she was simply out of moves, and her brain too tired to think of one.

Then Taylor rushed in:

"How did that mutt find out you were here Billie?!" He spat walking up to her cage and gripping the bars like he was trying to strangle something.

She said nothing, just stared onward with dull black eyes, not even glancing in his direction. Then as more large noises could be heard from outside she lifted her head off of her hand and looked up; gauging how muffled the noise was, she guessed that they were underground.

"He works fast…" She mumbled.

And then striking a meditative position she turned her body away from Taylor and tried to recompose herself. Taylor stood there staring, practically seeing red… she knew he would come. She never had a doubt.

"You… really love O'Donnell?" He asked feeling deflated, like a general who had lost the battle and the war.

"More than the two of you would ever understand…"She said without turning around.

"Not that I expect you to be able to. You and her are exactly alike; you get everything you want by manipulating people. But sooner or later when you meet people you cannot bend, or break you go crazy. Like a child throwing a temper tantrum because they are denied what they want the minute they want it."

Taylor looked over at Billie… his Billie; Wolf's, she was never Taylor's to take.

"I hope you two are very happy together… for the amount of time you have left." Billie said turning her head, and shot him a glare with one eye:

"Because the term 'mercy' is one not found in Wolf's vocabulary." She turned back around and meditated silently from there.

And for the first time since he could remember; Taylor felt afraid. Then as he backed away… he just felt numb. There was nothing left for him to lose; he had lost his prison, his only family, and now he lost something he never had to start with: only in his mind. Slowly he turned and walked out of the room.

* * *

After finding a guards arm laying in the burnt room where the grenades went off, he grabbed it and used it to get to the bottom security floor from the service elevator behind the room that contained the cells, and then he tossed it to the floor. Wolf stood in the service elevator; armed to the teeth still, listening to the simple melody that came through the speakers.

When the elevator stopped finally on the base floor it opened with a ding to a dark hallway. Wolf blinked a few times as he stepped out; trying to make sure it wasn't an illusion. Slowly stepping forward looking at all of the possible ways he could go, this place was built out like a maze. When he realized the deeper he went the darker it got her turned on his e-patches inferred.

Closing his right eye he turned his head around looking through all of the walls for heat signatures; the blue glow from his patch being the only thing visible as he moved forward. Forward towards a room that let off a large red and orange signature amongst the background of blue and green. He knew that was most likely where she was being held; and began marching like a man on a mission towards it; which is at this point exactly what he was. Then all of a sudden, he caught movement of an orangey humanoid figure, with a cold left arm.

"She knew you'd come." Taylor's voice said as the lights shot on.

Wolf corrected his e-patch to a normal field of vision and opened his good eye.

"From the moment I took her away from that beach." Wolf watched Taylor standing in front of him in the sterile looking grey hallway, a blank look on his face.

Wolf looked at the man who had been the cause of all his troubles for the last month and growled, aiming his guns right at Taylor's head.

"We both know how this will end. One of us dead, and then what?" Taylor said looking at his opponent.

"Can you save the girl you love O'Donnell?"

"Yeah, but before I do: I'm gonna take your fucking head off…"

"Not if I take yours off first." Said the broken lynx left with nothing more to lose, he tossed his black coat to the side and revealed his cannon of an arm.

The two stood there for a moment, the eerie silence before the battle. Wolf had relied on the animal within himself to break from the grip of the headmaster; and now, with the slightest flick of his tail he would call upon the same adrenaline to end this cats life. The age old game of dog chasing cat would end here; with only one true victor.

Taylor opened his mouth and growled; Wolf did the same, then all hell broke loose:

Taylor shot a long stream of hot plasma at Wolf's head; in turn Wolf bent down to a feral fighting pose he used often due to his tremendous height. Bending down close to the ground like a lower animal made him seem small, and harder to hit. Furthermore with the use of all four limbs this made him a much more viable threat.

The shot whizzed over his head, blasting through the wall down the hallway, leaving only charred remains. Wolf wasted no time as he raised up his pistols, but Taylor was just as on the ball as he used his arm to blast a hole in the wall right next to him and run through into the smoke; Wolf's shots missed. He holstered his gun and tucked Billie's into his belt. Then keeping quiet for the sake of stealth; stayed low on the ground and activated inferred once again, mentally thanking Billie for the upgrade as he did so.

He could see Taylor's form crouching down in wait, and decided to move before the smoke settled. Wolf shot into the room with a bestial roar, running right at the hot spot of Taylor, and then the vision on his e-patch picked up a white hot heat signature from the plasma being shot at his head. He leaned his to his left as he was running forward and the plasma struck his spiked shoulder armor sending it away from his person into a wall. Finally with large claws outstretched he tackled Taylor right through an automatic door into another sterile grey hallway.

On top of Taylor in the light he clasped his hands tightly around his throat; claws piercing into the flesh of his neck. Taylor dug his fingers into Wolf's forearms, with a surprising amount of sharpness from his real hands claws; as well as from the sharp metal of his bionic arm, blood trickled out of Wolf's flesh and he reared back in pain. Giving Taylor the opportunity to break free of his death grip and roll Wolf under him, banging his head down to the stone floor hard. Wolf sat there dazed and looked on to see a black bionic fist go barreling into his left eye.

Wolf yelled out in pain as his e-patch was shattered, and then Taylor sent another punch causing it to spark out and singe the fur on Wolf's face a little bit. Then with his spiked kneepad, Wolf sent his leg strait up into Taylor's back; Taylor screamed out rearing backwards as the inch long spike pierced the muscle right next to his spinal column. Wolf pulled it out of him sending his leg down, then gripped Taylor's shoulders and pulled his head down with all his might, giving the lynx a star seeing headbut.

Frantically Taylor backed away on his rear end; leaving a trail of blood running from his back as they both gripped their heads. Wolf took off his sparking e-patch and threw it away. Closing his bad eye so he wouldn't be distracted by the blur he looked over at Taylor charging up a massive shot from his biotech. He fired and Wolf rolled to his left and hugged the wall, but the shot still seared his leg burning right through his pant leg. Wolf howled out at the searing pain; then felt his blood pressure build with rage.

"Enough of this plasma burn shit!" He yelled getting up and charging at Taylor.

Before Taylor could react in any way; Wolf leapt up into the air on muscular legs and then shot straight back down on his target. Hoisting his fists behind his back, and then sending them down on Taylor's chest with all of the strength he could muster, knocking the air right out of the cat. Taylor went into heart palpitations due to the force smacking into his chest while his heart was just finishing a beat, and then he fell back gasping for air that just wouldn't come. Wolf took no notice as he grabbed Taylor's metal arm and pulled on it. He pulled with all of his might, placing his foot on the cats face for leverage, and then came a large and loud series of popping noises.

Wolf threw the now useless arm behind them and looked at the shoulder he had pulled it out of; cords and wires were hanging out of the wound that now bled heavily. He looked at the face of his prey, this cat didn't even put up a good fight; not as good of a fight as McCloud ever put up anyways… Taylor was defeated in every possible definition of the word; and then something primal snapped within Wolf as he sent his teeth straight down into Taylor's throat. Taylor could not even scream as Wolf pulled his throat out, and he began to choke on his own blood. Wolf spat the flesh out to his side and let out a growl like thunder to the lynx's face as he took his gun out of its holster.

"That's all for you." Wolf said using the bayonet of his pistol to sever the cat's spinal column; once and for all silencing him.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, the adrenaline rush surged through his body, he looked down at the broken animal under him; he stood up and let out a triumphant howl to the ground above his head. Then his moment was cut short as he heard a blood curtailing scream; he knew who the voice belonged to.

"Billie!" He called rushing down the long hallway.

* * *

After running towards what sounded like an intense fight Wolf broke into a room that looked like some sort of seldom used laboratory.

"What the?" He mouthed looking at a large glass tube in the middle of the room that had been shattered and whatever goo was in it trailed off to a door on the opposite side of the room.

And something else that immediately took his notice was how quiet it had gotten. He aimed his pistol forward and quickly stepped forward, walking towards the automatic door it slid open and a familiar face came running out smack into him. They fell backwards onto the gooey floor.

"Billie!" Wolf said in an amazing amount of relief.

"Wolf? Is it really you?!" She said as tears streamed down her face…

"No…" She pushed him away. "You're just another illusion!" She cried.

"No. Billie it's me."

She stood up closing her eyes and holding her ears.

"I have to get out of here away from these illusions!." Then she started blabbering on in a language he didn't understand. She was hysterical.

"Billie!" He said standing up and shaking her until she looked at him. "It. Is. Me." He said holding her face making her look at him.

Billie looked back and forth from both of his eyes. Then she jumped up to his height and kissed him.

"Wolf…" She said hugging him and breathing him in for real this time.

He hugged her back as relief washed over him like liquid. As she spoke suddenly remembering the gravity of the situation.

"Get me out of here. I can't be here anymore!" She said.

Wolf nodded then they heard a banging noise coming from the door she had run through. Wolf aimed up his gun at it shielding her behind him.

"We have to go, now." Billie said pulling him away.

"What is that?" He argued not budging.

"Taylor's employer! Let's go!" She pulled him; then they stopped and stared at the liquidy mess of shadow lace ooze through the door, standing up and taking shape.

Wolf unleashed a barrage of shots onto the heap of blackness, that all sunk into it not even phasing it. It stood up in a creepy way not able to hold itself together well, then in a familiar voice spoke.

"You cannot go until I say you can go!"

"Nuh uh…" Wolf said shaking his head not wanting to fight that thing; him and Billie tailed it.

They sped down the hallways running through them hand in hand; back to the service elevator.

"And I say you can go when you are dead!" It called behind them, as the liquid slithered after them hot on their tails.

They ran on as their lungs screamed at them to halt, they kept going on and on until they smacked into the elevator doors, Wolf frantically pressing the button. They stepped into the elevator and pressed the top floor button as they watched the humanoid mass smack into a wall turning a corner too fast. It ran at them with a guttural scream as the doors slowly closed. They backed into the rear of the elevator as only one of its arms got through and began to claw into the room.

"Fuck you!" Billie screamed grabbing Wolf's gun and shooting it with the hot plasma; it began to melt at the heat and ooze onto the floor.

"Oh great you pissed it off!" Wolf said as the black liquid began to pool around their feet.

"She said she couldn't keep herself together in open air!" Billie said, glaring at him.

"Well now we are gonna die!" Wolf said pressing his nose against hers with a snarl on his muzzle.

She snarled right back as she hissed: "Well at least we'll be together!"

"Yeah! Isn't it wonderful! You know I'm gonna ask you again how many times am I gonna have to save your ass?!"

"Well you didn't have to come!"

"I couldn't not come you idiot!"

"Why?!"

"BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, YAH STUBBORN LITTLE-" Wolf got cut off as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

They hadn't noticed the liquid reaching their waists until they were flooded out of the elevator onto the floor with the large room containing all of the cells.

"I love you too you stubborn prick!" She yelled glaring at him from the floor.

Wolf smirked at her and they heard a voice as the black liquid began to bubble and collide with itself.

"If this is how I must break you number three!"

Billie gasped as a black spear shot out of the rising figures arm; she leapt out of the way.

"Get to the stairs!" Wolf screamed at her and chucked a grenade into the black material.

Then following Billie up the stairs the two made a run down the hall Wolf had come in. They ran through as the hissing figure chased them; but when the grenade blew inside of it, Wolf turned around for a moment thinking he had it. But much to his shock and disappointment he could see the mass bulge out with the explosion; and then quickly recover. He swore under his breath as they ran out of the front gate into the wreckage Leon and Panther had caused killing off every straggler.

Without his e-patch he had no means on communication with the two Wolfens flying overhead.

"There they are!" Leon cried watching them run out.

"But what is that?!" Panther said in a mortified tone as large black tendrils of disgusting liquid broke through the walls of the prison behind them.

The large shadowed hand slammed down onto the ground behind them knocking them off balance. Then the two team members in their Wolfens began to bomb and shoot all the black mass; it coiled all about like it was in pain trying to hit them. Wolf and Billie watched as the entire prison went up in flames, her and Wolf's ships sped back into view; having been called back by Panther and made a landing far off on a dirt road.

Billie and Wolf jogged over out of the way of the collapsing building, and then they came to a slow, feeling the heat coming from it as it exploded. They turned and watch the black howling mass bubble out and collapse into the wreckage of the burning building. Then Leon and Panther's ships landed behind them next to theirs.

"Billie!" Panther called as Leon and himself jogged out towards them.

"Hey guys." She called in a raspy voice.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you alive and…" Panther looked over. "Whole!"

Leon just nodded, as if he hadn't been worried the whole time, but Wolf thought his eyes looked a little glassy; like they were holding back liquid. Wolf wanted to join them in their enthusiastic cloud, but he felt something… something not right. He flicked his ears then quickly turned around; he was grabbed by a large black hand and dragged back to the prison gates,

Leon was the first to spring into action with his blades at the ready as Wolf yelled and clawed at the mass. Then seeing a face appear from the flames in some kind of black burning monstrosity from a bad horror movie the jackal's voice cried out cracking and broken:

"YOU WILL DIE!"

Wolf screamed out as the shadow lace pierced his flesh in small needle like ways all over, Leon was pushed back into Panther and Billie as blazes of flame were sent forth from her own screams. She sucked energy straight out of Wolf with her own shadow lace like she had done to Billie so many times before… except he was a mere mortal; and sucking him dry took only seconds.

"Gaaaah!" Wolf screamed and then was thrown.

"WOLF!" Billie cried and ran over to his body.

From the flames the headmistress did nothing except compose her form. The three Star Wolf members gathered around their leader and watched him sputter up blood.

"What did she do?!" Leon called over Billie.

She held Wolf's head in her hands and looked in his eyes.

"She tore out his life force…" She said recognizing the wounds from her childhood.

"Wolf! Stay with me!" She said weeping fresh tears profusely as he struggled to breath,

"B-bill…" He couldn't even finish it; he had no strength left at all.

He looked up at her face, weeping over him, but heard no sound.

'So this is how I go?' He asked himself in his head. He tried to move his lips but could not. He couldn't even close his eyes if he wanted, that's how drained he felt. He looked up at the face of the only woman he had ever loved enough to keep around. And then as everything faded to black around him, the last thoughts Wolf O'Donnell ever thought went through his head:

'I was never bored Billie… after you joined Star Wolf…' A small smile crossed his tired lips and his eyes lost focus and rolled back in his head.

'…I was never bored.'

His body went limp in her arms as the three family members looked onward.

"N-no-no! Wolf stay with me!" She shook his limp bloody body. "Wolf! GOD NOOOO!" She screamed over his dead body. "Wake up! WAKE UP!" She shook him.

Panther bent down and put his hands on her shoulders trying to pull her away:

"Billie, he's gone." But she refused to leave and jerked away from him.

Leon turned away and closed his eyes. It was a rare occurrence; but there were some people Leon did not enjoy the idea of them dying… And Wolf, had been the closest thing that psycho had ever had to any kind of friendship.

"At last…" Said the headmistress in a soft tone. "I have broken you number three…"

The three of them turned to look at the horrible mutated monster of black before them.

"You…" Billie hissed feeling her sadness being replaced by rage. She griped her fists so tightly her nails dug into the flesh of her palms drawing blood.

"I will tear you to even more pieces." Billie said through gritted teeth getting up to her feet.

Leon and Panther backed away from her as she began to let off a strange pulse of energy. Shadow lace sprung fourth from her wrists along with her blood, mixing with the strange smoke giving it an strange reddish hue, it wrapped all around her body like armor, and a large portion of it formed itself into her weapon; a large black scythe.

The black figure looked over at the headmistress with burning red eyes.

"The last of a kind; to do battle to the death. Very good number three." The mistress laughed forming her own weapon, a large pole axe that bore a blade on both ends.

"A battle implies that you have a chance of winning…" Billie said rising into the air.

"I am your death!" She finished whipping her scythe behind her and shooting down like a bullet.


	21. Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

Wolf walked on aimlessly through the dark, going at a steady pace; not even sure of where he was going… not even really aware of anything, at all. He walked on through a patch of darkness that didn't seem to block out the light either, it was just a whole bunch of nothing. Lost in the same groggy feeling one always feels just before they fall asleep.

'How long have I been walking?' He thought; his thought patters moved in visible intervals around his head.

Not taking notice of how odd that seemed at all he walked onward. Then all of a sudden he caught a whiff of something; something light and airy. It was so familiar yet he couldn't place his claw on it. The scent… Then in one big flash of white all of his memories flooded back into him.

"Billie!" He said looking around frantically.

Only then did he realize he had no idea where he was… or if he was even…

"Am I dead?" He asked out loud.

Then a small white light appeared in front of him, he sniffed into the air following the sweet smell; charging towards the ever growing light. And all of a sudden he entered it, and popped out of an old stone door.

He looked around at the lush garden before him; there was a waterfall that fell straight out of the sky attached to nothing, going into an ever growing river that had an elegant mossy covered stone bridge crossing it. He walked onward over the cobblestones poking out from the grass, which felt soft and cool on his bare feet. That's when he looked at what he was wearing, a very lose fitting clean white shirt and pants. He looked down it after picking it away from his body with his bare clawed hand; he had no scars of any kind to speak of. No aches or pains at all; he felt fantastic.

"Hello?" He called walking forward down the path.

"Am I dead?" He thought to ask out loud again, looking for any kind of response.

He was only answered by a pleasant breeze blowing by as he stepped onto the bridge. He looked down at the water below and was taken back again; the face that looked up at him had no scar at all. Both of his eyes were perfectly intact, he put a hand up to it; he had 20/20 vision alright.

"Son of a bitch…" He mumbled, he realized now: he really was dead.

"This is heaven? THIS IS BORING!" He cried out to the sky.

Then with a heavy sigh he stared back down at the water, there were long snakelike fish swimming through, with colors cast into their scales that Wolf had never even seen before. He stopped to marvel at the creatures and then saw a white flower petal drift by. Then another and another; he looked up to the other side of the bridge and saw a massive group of bushes with dense purple leaves and gigantic white flowers handing down from their stems over the leaves like swans.

Then he heard a giggle come from the other side. Hoping there was someone else here he jogged down the bridge and made his way across the path, where he came to see lanterns and fireflies swarming around the fragrant white flowers. Were those what he had smelled before? Suddenly he became aware of how everything felt dim like he was in the twighlight hour. He looked up to see a sky of stars, stars that danced around like a Van Gogh painting leaving large trails behind them as they slowly drifted around with the wind.

"He's here!" Wolf looked over to a little black fox running towards him.

"Oh, we weren't expecting you so soon." She said running up to him and giving him a hug like someone would an old friend they hadn't seen in ages.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked when she broke away from him.

She looked up at him with big brown eyes; she had a lovely smile with a brown blaze running up her muzzle to her forehead. Wolf opened his eyes wide at the shape of this woman's face.

"You're Billie's mom…" He said looking down at her; she nodded.

She was wearing all white just like him; she turned around and called to someone else:

"Sam, Wolf is here!"

A solid white wolf larger than Wolf himself looked up with big blue eyes.

"Welcome. Welcome!" He said marching over.

"You're… not supposed to be here yet." He said pointing to Wolf.

"Uhhh…" Wolf said at a loss for words.

"Haha! Don't worry kiddo this aint' heaven." He said giving Wolf a slap on the back.

"Hell? That's where I thought I'd go…" Wolf mumbled to himself.

"Oh no nothing like that!" Said the little fox. "This is more of… A waiting room!" She said gesturing for Wolf to follow.

"What are we waitin' for?" Wolf asked as they walked along.

"Not we… just you." She said sitting in a stone gazebo.

"Me?"

"Yeah, the universe isn't as clean cut as most people think when it comes to dying." Said Sam sitting next to his wife.

Wolf sat down on the bench across from them trying to take this all in.

* * *

"A battle implies that you have a chance of winning…" Billie said rising into the air.

"I am your death!" She finished whipping her scythe behind her and shooting down like a bullet.

The two shadow blades clashed like thunder as the headmistress raised hers up in a block. Billie backed away, and the two menacing figures of the darkest fathoms continued to hack and slash at one another as they sailed through the air over the burning ruins of the once great prison. Panther and Leon looked up at the spectacle from the side of their boss's body. Watching the two figures zoom in and out of the rising veil of ebony smoke; making noises like one would expect from the type of storm they would evacuate entire cities to escape. Two great titans in their own right clashing over the result that might as well be the end of the world.

Leon looked down at the corpse of his once great ally; these Shadow Legion must have been a fantastic fighting force indeed. For even when rendered nearly powerless at the hands of such vile experimentation they could still suck the life out of another being with such relative ease.

"Do you think we should get in our ships and assist?" Panther asked as the fur on his tail stood on end; his blood chilling at the horrifying spectacle.

"We would only get in the way. Besides…" Leon said looking away from the corpse and up at what might very well be Billie's final battle.

"She's a Shadow Legion; don't treat her like she's made of glass." He finished joining Panther's side in watching on.

The battle raged on, neither one having been able to land a solid hit as of yet. Billie dropped down straight backwards into the cloud of smoke looking at the growing mass of the headmistress from above. The jackal then proceeded to tail her on through, only to lose sight of her in the burning heat. But Billie saw her; and with the blade of her weapon ablaze she took a deep slash right into her back. The headmistress writhed in pain as they shot out of the smoke and into the jungle below with a boom, crushing up the dirt and knocking over trees.

Billie pulled her scythe out and then dug it back into the squirming mass that now no longer resembled any kind of humanoid at all; but a large squirming mass of boiling tentacles. Tentacles and tendrils hit proceeded to lash out at Billie and push her far into the sky once again, trying to pierce her flesh, but not able to breach her mix of shadow lace and blood.

"What is it?!" The headmistress screeched coming up to Billie's level.

She then proceeded to tear and claw away at Billie's armor with her burning tentacles; boiling in a rage, they began to breach Billie's armor as they fell down through the air.

"What is it that allows you to keep going?!" Asked the screeching demon as they propelled down into the flames.

Billie squirming in her grip trying to break free as her shielding grew weaker and thinner.

"How do you still defy me?! With nothing left to lose! Tell me.." She howled as they ripped down into the smoke.

"TELL ME!"

Then they crashed into the center of the blaze; Billie's shadow laced armor took most of the impact but she still felt the impact to a painful degree. She laid there feeling her powers puttering out as the jackal above her began to take a humanoid shape once again and glare over her. Standing over the defeated Billie in the flames all around them, she loomed over Billie's black frame in the crater the impact had created amidst the flames.

"Now… I will once and for all, break you number three!" She hissed raising her large arms.

She brought down her sharp boiling tendril and Billie just closed her eyes in defeat.

'Wolf… I'm so sorry.' She thought waiting for her death.

She just couldn't win; try as she might. The 1,000 year old jackal simply had too much experience on her… she was infinitely more powerful. Billie had finally met her match it seemed. And the bitter irony was: that it too almost 100 years for her to realize that the mistress was her match.

She heard the mistress make contact; but felt nothing at all. The she heard the jackal scream in frustration; and make contact again… and again… Finally she flashed her eyes open to catch a glimpse of the horrid demon making another strike only to crash into a whitish sort of field around Billie that was only visible each time she struck.

"What is that?!" The jackal hissed in frustration striking repeatedly with boiling enraged appendages.

"Hey!" Billie heard a voice and they both looked to the right.

"Oh my God…" Billie said looking at the owner of the voice.

"Why don't you do us all a favor and drop dead." Said a spectral vision of a wiley fox in cheap sunglasses.

Then he pulled out a blaster and shot the jackals figure away in a barrage of white shots; the gross figure of the headmistress screamed and fell back into the flames after being struck with the barrage of shots.

"Billie get up." She heard another voice and felt metal on her skin lifting her to her feet.

"DEVIN!" She cried looking at the spectral cyborg.

"Billie focus; you have to finish her, now!" James said joining them; two of her dearest friends on each side.

The horrible boiling, melting demon screeched and hissed in the flames trying to pull herself back together. James took more shots at her to slow it down.

"Billie listen;" Devin said gripping her shoulder. "We can help you deal the final blow, we can give you enough energy to put into her to end her once and for all; but you have to strike at the exact right moment do you understand?" He said as James gripped her other shoulder.

"I do!" She nodded. "But you guys I have to-"

"There is no time." Devin said realistically.

"But I…" she said practically in tears as they each put their hands on her scythe's handle.

"Billie; it was a stupid argument over two decades ago; forget about it already!" James said giving her a thumbs up.

She looked at her friends smiling face as both specters grew brighter and brighter, like little suns.

"But Devin you… you gave up your life to save mine! How can I…"

"You were worth saving my dear." Devin said in his kind old tone that she remembered.

Billie gripped her scythe hard as they both vanished; and her weapon began to glow a great white. She gripped it tightly in her hands looking at her opponent melting on fire pulling herself towards Billie with a variety of grotesque noises.

"Time to take out the trash…" Billie said; her shadow armor gaining a second wind.

She rose up her foot and put it into what looked like the jackals face, rearing her backwards; then with a clear shot at her chest she sent her blade into it, propelling her upwards into the sky. With an incredible series of slashes that left deep white burns in the blackness of the headmistress they rose up into the sky through the smoke.

"What is that?" Panther called out in shock.

For all Leon and Panther could make out was a white light piercing the growing dark of the rising smoke chimney. In fact, the glow from their point of view almost looked like a pair of brightly lit wings of some magnificent creature flying upward.

Billie let the jackal fall a bit, then looking over her slashed up blackened limbless body she heard the voices of her friends:

"Who's broken now?" James said in a cocky tone.

"Let us be rid of it." Devin finished.

"Yes… let us be rid of it… NOW!" Billie cried swinging her scythe.

She fell right in front of the jackal and just before the body hit the ground she dealt what would be the final strike. The writhing torso of the broken Legion howled out a cry of pain that could be heard for miles, as the great white light ran through her body, it started to crack and break up until…

Poof. Billie watched from the flames around her as the Shadow Legion almost looked like she had turned to stone; and then exploded into a great mess of black ash.

"It's over…" Billie said letting it sink in.

Feeling lighter than air her body rose up into the sky over the smoke; out in the open air, she let the Cornerian wind sweep over her, peeling her veil of shadow lace away. Only her long black hair and her hands were still cloaked in the black energy as she floated on high over the sun begging to set on the horizon. Billie watched her white scythe shatter like a beautiful work of stain glass, as the colors of from the pastel sky danced around on it; the shattered pieces faded and she could hear the elated voices of her old friends on the breeze whipping by.

"I told you my sweet; you were made for better things…" Said Devin, his final goodbye to his apprentice. Then she felt his hands leave her shoulders; and he was gone.

Billie looked around for any sign of James; for a moment she thought she heard a light carefree laughter on the wind, just like she had heard that day on Fichina. She looked up and did a double take at the blue orange the sky was becoming. There was a figure that almost looked like an Arwing flying over while James's laugh rung through her ears. But as quickly as she saw it; it was gone again.

Her light sense of peace was cut short when she turned around to look at the four ships on the dirt path in the distance. With a heavy heart, and heavier tears she floated down towards the reality of the situation.

* * *

"Do you see Wolf?" Billie's mother said looking to him with her large brown eyes.

The soft, inviting expressions they made reminded him so much of Billie.

"I think he understands Diane." Sam said putting an arm over his wife's shoulders.

"So… this was all preordained before I was even born?" Wolf said taking everything in.

"Before Billie was even born!" Diane said clapping happily.

"They day we lost our little girl was horrible… But sometimes one must be sacrificed; for the good of the many." Sam said with a grim look.

"But our bodies died long ago; and we were aloud the knowledge that only the dead are let in on." He continued. Then Diane cut in:

"Yes, you see throughout the entire universe throughout all of time… There have been people like you, and Billie, and even Fox!" She said in her high tone.

"People like us?" Wolf asked trying to fit the pieces together.

"The restless…" Sam said. "Those who start life painfully, and have to struggle for everything. It is people like you who become the best in heart and mind. Throughout your struggles, you and Billie became the best that **they** could make you. And your task is far from done; for it is you… and the McCloud child, who still have to once again become the protectors of Lylat and all of her colonies." He said looking to Wolf with a serious gaze.

"Yes, you being caught up in all of your vice's; has ensured that those who threaten the balance and the order of things, are put down. That is why they decided to send you back…" Diane said holding her palms together and pointing them in Wolf's direction.

"They…?" Wolf said feeling uneasy.

"I told you dear; you aren't supposed to be here yet." She said with a wide grin.

* * *

Billie gracefully floated down before Panther and Leon, as her feet touched the dirt below her; her shadow lace faded, letting her loose hair fall to her back and revealing her bloodied hands.

"That was amazing!" Leon called over. "You took that scythe and slashed her to ribbons! So much cutting… And Panther thought she had you beat in the jungle, he was so worried."

"I never doubted you for a second!" He argued shooting Leon a look.

But Billie didn't hear anything, she walked past them with a crushed and defeated look on her tear stained face. Standing at Wolf's feet looking down over his white dead eyes, and the slightly agape mouth…

"It's not fair… everything is okay now… We can be a team now, without worrying about Taylor, or Dexter or any of it!" She said weeping fourth more tears.

"O'DONNELL! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS YOU BASTARD!" She screamed out into the soft twighlight glow.

The wind blew through her with a howl; she raised a hand to wipe her whipping hair out of her face. Her eyes clouded black, she was out of tears to give, they became black, her shadow lace wept for her when she could not. It wept for Wolf, like the ocean weeps for the moon; the ocean sighs on and on.

"I refuse…" She said gripping her bloody fists.

"Billie?" Panther asked worried about what she was going to do.

"I refuse to let you leave me you son of a bitch!" Billie barked.

She plopped down on Wolf's lap and tore open his plasma proofed vest; revealing his sweaty and cold chest underneath his black tee. She pushed his golden pendant aside and ripped his shirt open down the middle revealing bloodied fur; his skin full of small holes where his energy had been taken.

"Billie what are you doing?!" Panther yelled assuming she had gone mad.

"A Shadow Legion stole his life away… Maybe I can give it back." She said in a shaky voice as her black tears dripped down onto the white patch of his lean chest.

"Could that actually work?" Leon said sounding almost… hopeful.

"I would renounce my title as a Legion!" She said placing her palms on his chest and letting the lace sink into the wounds.

"IF IT WOULD BUY ME ONE MORE HOUR WITH HIM!"

Leon and Panther watched on in a stunned; open mouthed silence as the lace swarmed and hissed all around the body of Wolf.

"You get your ass back here O'Donnell!" She screamed in an amazing amount of physical and emotional pain.

* * *

Wolf looked up at the once calm stars, they were now becoming a dismal shade of deep blue; and dripping down like paint, splashing over everything.

"What's happening?" He asked to the strangely calm couple sitting across from him.

"Time for you to go kiddo…" Sam said as he and his wife stood up.

"Wha- OUCH!" Wolf yelped gripping at his chest.

"What the fuck was that?" Wolf said feeling pain beating in his chest.

An intense pain like nothing he had ever felt before.

"GAH!" He gripped at it again and fell to his knees.

"It's okay; don't fight it, just let it in." Diane said in a soothing way.

"GAAAH!" Wolf's vision began to blur in his left eye as the wind picked up and the sky above began to fall.

"Oh and by the way Wolf…" Diane shouted over the earsplitting noises all around.

"Tell Billie something for us!"

"What?!" He yelled feeling himself fading into the blue.

Billie screamed in pain as life left her body… as the agelessness left; every year she had lived or might ever live again. She now gladly gave them to Wolf. Whose body began to seize under hers as new life sprung forth by the energy she had carried within herself filled his heart and brain and forced them back into function. Billie gasped as a weird bubbelish sort of pop was heard by all, then Wolf's body arched back and sucked in a huge gasp of air beneath her.

Panther caught Billie as she was thrown backwards, Leon looked at Wolf's white eyes rolling and seizing up as his body coughed in its first breaths of air.

Wolf himself was lost in the blue but could hear Billie's shaky voice pleading, closer and closer. Then all of a sudden right over his face.

"Come back. Come back. Come back!"

His body settled down, and he felt the aches and pains of life all over him again. He blinked his dry eyes open; they watered a bit trying to make up for the scratchiness of death on him. Everything blurred in slowly; his vision and his physical sensation; he felt a hand on the side of his face.

Billie looked down at his violet eye blink up at her.

"Wolf?" She said in a small voice.

He tried to speak; but his mouth was so dry, he just coughed. She put his head on her lap to elevate it, and he watched Panther and Leon crowd over him as well. He moved his lips slowly trying to speak, but his voice was barley there. Billie knelt down to hear what he was saying.

"Trisha…" His voice made out softly.

"What?" Billie asked confused.

Wolf cleared his throat as his saliva began to moisten it; he was able to speak a bit louder as he said:

"That's your name… Trisha Parker, Scott…" Then he coughed more.

"My name…" Billie whispered… "Trisha…" She held her head remembering only now, her mother calling her in from the garden time and time again…

"She would call me Tish… when I was feeling sad…"

"OH. YOUR. GOD!" Leon said, his color changing going crazy.

"HE'S ALIVE!" Leon laughed manically.

"He's alive!" Billie wept.

"Damnit Leon shut the hell up…" Wolf said annoyed at the sound of his laughter.

"And he hasn't changed a bit…" Panther said with a grin.

"The hell he hasn't look." Billie said whipping her eyes.

They looked down at Wolf's damaged left eye; the white of it was now completely black. Black with his new life.

"Can you see out of it?" Billie asked.

"Nope." Wolf said flatly.

"So… is he, one of you now?" Panther asked looking at Billie.

"No…" Wolf said already knowing what happened.

"Me and Billie operate on the same wave length now…" He said clutching his chest and pulling himself up.

"Be careful." Leon said helping him. "You are still stiff with the rigamortis."

"I'm fine damnit!" Wolf said shooing his hand away.

But then he stumbled and fell backwards; all three members of his Star Wolf family placed their hands on him and pulled him to his feet. He accepted the help of his family with a gruff: "Humph".

"What did you see?" Panther asked. "How do you know what's going on?"

"It's not important…" He said in a gruff and dry voice.

"All you lunk-heads need to know is that little miss ageless there…" He said balancing himself and turning to Billie.

"Is going to age at the exact same rate as me now…"

"WHAT?" They all said together in shock.

"That's right…" He nodded. Then he put a hand up to her face and wiped away the black stains with a clawed thumb.

"But I can still…" She held up a hand and watched shadow lace come out, and then sink back down into herself.

"Yeah, you can… But the lace dies with you." He said, and then started to cough a bit.

"Oh Wolf!" She cried hugging him tightly; it almost knocked him over.

"I thought I lost you! I thought you were going to be another one on the list of crap immortals have to deal with!" She said loudly muffled by the fur on his chest.

"I aint' that easy to get rid of…" He said hugging her small trembling frame.

"Aww that's nice… Now give her a kiss." Panther said.

Wolf shot him a 'what the fuck' glare.

"Finally…" She said looking out at the flames beginning to die down. "The age of Shadow Legion is over…"

She separated from her love and walked slowly towards the flames, watching them die away, along with everything she had once hated and feared. Her three family members watched on as she dug her curved black knife out of her right combat boot and raise it up to her head. Grasping at her hair; she began to cut it through. Until she had black locks which only reached the back of her neck. They watched on as she held her hair; Shadow Legion were never allowed to cut their hair. But with this, she no longer was bound by her blood to linger on forever; she no longer had to watch everyone around her die.

She was free… free to age, to connect. To grow old if she wasn't killed along the way. As the sky became darker she rose up the clump of hair, along with everything that once burdened her and tossed it into the wind. Wolf walked up to her side, feeling his blood flowing steadily once again and they watched the strands float on and away into the flames.

"So does this mean we get to call you Trisha?" Wolf asked tearing off the remains of his tattered shirt from under his vest.

"No…" Billie said running a hand through her short hair. "Come on Wolf look at me? Trisha? My name is Billie! All that way! Radical Billie Shade; tough as nails!" She laughed feeling peace over take her.

Wolf grabbed her face and kissed her; making a beautiful silhouette over the flames.

"Oh pleaaaase…" Leon said rolling his eyes.

"Wait for it." Panther said as they watched from the background.

Wolf separated from her; looking into her eyes he asked a serious question, in a tone that implied he was being sarcastic:

"How would you feel about bein' called Billie O'Donnell then?"

"Called it!" Panther said holding out his hand.

"Son of a bitch…" Leon said flatly handing panther a stack of Lylat credits.

Billie stood there in stunned silence trying to gauge Wolf's seriousness… She just smiled.

* * *

** Two months later…**

Billie looked at a hollow projector from where she was sitting in her black sleeveless turtle neck and her white jeans; she had decided to wear the same heels she had worn on the New Lullix mission… that seemed forever ago now, she used a finger to smooth a strand of her graduating bob out of her face. Sitting in wait in the small courthouse room as the news went on.

"And all reports are saying that with the mysterious death of infamous crime boss Dexter Tyson; who had no blood heirs or any kind of will and final testament. That the crime rate throughout sector's X, Y, and Z has diminished immensely. It seems no one is interested in picking up where the crime boss left off; and as for the whereabouts of his billions of Lylat credits officers assume that those who worked under him, took it before they began to flee from the police. More on this as it develops."

She clicked it off as it went to commercial and sighed. Then Wolf came marching in, sporting a plain black patch over his left eye.

"You told me you were going to wear something nice…" Billie said getting up and zipping up his blue vest over his tee shirt.

"You told me you didn't want to make a big deal out of this."

"I don't…" She said dismissively. "And sorry your new e-patch hasn't arrived yet… I had them reinforce the frame. And I ordered something cool from that Slippy guy." She said pushing him up to a glass waiting box with a rather bored looking notary standing over some paper work.

"I hate that frog…" Wolf gruffed.

"He's a toad; and he makes good tech." She giggled.

"Humph."

The bored looking ram began to speak as they stood next to each other.

"Need each of you to sign here; in the names that you will be taking."

Wolf picked up the stylus and scribbled his signature onto the e-pad. Then he handed it to Billie who scribbled down 'Billie O'Donnell' quickly.

"Congratulations you're now married, kiss the bride." Said the ram with no detectible enthusiasm, then he clapped three times and took away the pad with the contract on it.

Wolf dug around in his pocket for a minute; then he pulled out the pendant his mother had left him on a new silver snake patterned chain and clipped it around Billie's neck. Billie looked down at it holding it in her hands. Wolf kissed her when she looked back up.

"Let's get out of here before someone realizes we are Star Wolf." He whispered grabbing her hand.

She giggled and followed him out of the Fichinian courthouse. They ran out to their motorcycle as Billie slung her coat on.

"We're actually married!" She said hugging him on back.

"Let's make it official…" He growled revving the engine up.

"Oh my…" She said through laughter holding on as he cut off a truck and they dashed on through the snow.

* * *

**Happy endings kick ass! Lol but this isn't the end, not really; Star Wolf has more to do! And for those of you who thought Wolf was dead forever; as if. Thats fucking Wolf O'Donnell! My favorite Star Fox character! As if you couldn't tell. Now you all know how I love being Critiqued; so let em rip. The whole story, the good the bad and the sexay! I want to hear it all, and your favorite quotes mine is: "this is heaven? THIS IS BORING!" Wolf can't go to heaven... at least not what most people think heaven is he would be too bored. He's got work to do man! **

**Next story will be delayed while I get the one shot story of how Billie and Wolf met when he was a child live. It's called Perfect Strangers. But other than that the next installment is my take on Command... which had great gameplay and bad story telling; so how far will it be from the game, we'll see. I am definalty gonna put in more Arwing and Wolfen action though. I really went all on ground combat for this story which I didn't realize until like... chapter 19. So any questions any at all; let me know via review! **


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